


The Silent Companion

by kitkat1150



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-19 00:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 37,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8182322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkat1150/pseuds/kitkat1150
Summary: Draco befriends a new muggleborn Slytherin during his fourth year. A look at the Triwizard Tournament from the view point of someone who knows nothing of the wizarding world.





	1. Chapter 1

Draco watched as this year's first years walked into the Great Hall, dripping wet from Peeves's water bombs and the torrential rain outside, trying to determine who would be in which house. There was a small boy who was clearly wearing Hagrid's coat and who was mouthing something at the Gryffidor table, he'd probably be an annoying little bugger, easy to pick on. McGonagall started calling out names, Draco watched as the first years were Sorted, clapping when one of them came to Slytherin. He didn't pay close attention until a girl, who could have been a Weasley, caught his eye. She had the same red hair and vacant expression that his father said were trademarks of the Weasley clan, but he hadn't heard of there being another one. To add to his doubts, she was looking about the Hall as if completely mystified by the magic surrounding her. She was a Mudblood.   
"Northrop, Caelie" McGonagall called out, and the girl stepped forward.   
The hat sat on her head for a very long time, but Draco wasn't concerned. She was a Mudblood. There was no way she'd be in Slytherin. He turned to look at the remaining students.  
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat called.  
He looked up to see her cautiously making her way to the house table. Without knowing why he was doing it, he gestured for her to sit next to him. She did so, not looking at him even though she could feel his eyes burning into her.   
Up close, it was confusing as to how he had mistaken her for a Weasel, her hair was darker than the Weasel Ginger, with completely freckle free skin that rivaled his own with paleness.   
The sorting continued, but he didn't pay any attention to it. He was transfixed on the girl sitting next to him.  
"Oh look, Malfoy's got himself a girlfriend, a little young though, isn't she" Draco heard. He knew that voice. He refused to look up and give Potter the satisfaction of knowing he had heard him. Instead he turned to Theodore Nott, sitting across from him and asked "So did you hear about what's happening this year?"  
But before Nott could answer Dumbledore stood up. Everybody turned.   
"I have only two words to say to you" he told them, his deep voice echoing around the Hall. "Tuck in."  
Git.  
Food appeared on the tables, making the wood groan under the weight, Draco noticed Caelie's startled expression.  
"There's house elves in the kitchens down below, maybe I'll show you later, they cook and clean and bow and scrape, but don't worry about it. The food's good, you should try it."  
She just looked at him with wide eyes, still not putting anything on her plate.  
Draco carefully selected a chicken breast, he never ate red meat if he could help it, placed it on his plate and then turned back to her.  
"Go on, it won't hurt you. Here"  
And he put half of his chicken on her plate, then took a bite of his own half himself.  
"There, see? Not poisoned."  
She gave a small smile, but did not pick up her fork.  
"I'm Malfoy, by the way, Draco Malfoy. I'm a 4th year, and these are my, erm, friends Crabbe and Goyle and that there's Nott and Zabini" he said pointing to each one in turn as they nodded.  
She nodded back, then looked down at her plate. She picked up her fork slowly, as if afraid it would hurt her and then carefully took a bite of chicken. Then another.  
Draco watched her out of the corner of his eye the entire time as he spoke to Nott and Zabini about the Quiditch World Cup, no one mentioned the Death Eaters. When he saw that she had finished the chicken, he turned to her.  
"Do you want anything else?"   
She shook her head.  
"Anything to drink?"  
She hesitated. That was enough for Draco. She was too skinny as it was and if she refused to eat, probably due to nerves, then he would get her something, other than water, to drink.   
He poured her a glass of pumpkin juice and then, remembering she probably had never had the sweet orange liquid, told her what it was. He watched as she tried it. She drank the whole thing down in one after a careful sip.  
"You sure you don't want anything else to eat?" but this time he didn't wait for her answer and instead put a large spoonful of corn on her plate along with two rolls. He wanted to test something.  
Sure enough, as soon as she thought he had looked away, she pocketed one of the rolls.   
Well then, that says enough about her parents, he thought but didn't say anything out loud.   
When she had finished what was on her plate, the food vanished to be replaced by dessert. This time, knowing the only way she was going to eat something was if he put it on her plate, Draco took a helping of treacle tart that was much larger than what he would normally take. He watched her eyes follow the tart all the way onto his plate before dropping them to her lap. He placed half the serving on her plate and then pointed at it when she looked up.  
"Eat, it's good" and then turned back to Zabini and Nott, who were looking at him strangely.   
"What?" he asked.  
"Oh, nothing" Zabini said, "just strange to see the ice prince showing compassion for a Mudblood is all."  
"Don't call her a Mudblood" Draco snapped.  
Zabini just raised an eyebrow while Nott gave a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.  
When the puddings too had been demolished, and the last crumbs had faded off the plates, Albus Dumbledore got to his feet again. Silence filled the hall, so that only the howling wind and pounding rain could be heard.  
“So!” said Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. “Now that we are all fed and watered, I must once more ask of your attention, while I give out a few notices. Mr. Filch has asked me to remind you-“ and with that, Draco stopped listening. Instead he watched Caelie as she listened to all the things that Filch had banned, along with the yearly reminder about the Forbidden Forrest.  
Honestly, does anyone pay attention to that warning? Probably the Hufflepuffs actually.  
There was outraged whispering as Dumbledore announced that there wouldn’t be Quidditch this year, but he already knew that, the Triwizard Tournament would certainly take up a lot of time. Just as Dumbledore was about to announce this, however, there was a deafening rumble of thunder and the doors of the Great Hall banged open. There stood a man, leaning upon a long staff, and shrouded in a black traveling cloak.   
Ah, this must be the missing teacher. And he has a wooden leg. Snape must still be teaching potions. Don’t know why he wants the defense job so much when he’s so good at potions. Although, he’d probably be a better teacher in that than we’ve ever had.  
Draco pulled himself out of his head as Dumbledore introduced the new teacher as “Professor Moody.”  
As everyone stared at Moody, Draco felt a warm presence sink into his side. Caelie was shrinking against him as if trying to hide from something.  
Or someone, his brain added helpfully.  
Draco looked sharply up at Moody, who’s magical eye was fixed on him.  
Or was it Caelie.  
“You’re JOKING!” one of the Weasley twins said loudly, drawing Draco back to his surroundings. Dumbledore must have announced the Tournament then.  
“I am not joking, Mr. Weasley,” he said, “though now that you mention it, I did here an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar-“ but he was cut off by McGonagall clearing her throat loudly and then continuing to explain what the Triwizard Tournament was, and the age restriction. He then dismissed them and sent them off to bed.   
Snape came down, like he always did, to show the Slytherin first years to the dormitories while the older students either stayed behind or followed along.   
Draco, for the first time since his own first year, followed along, Caelie still pressed up against his side.   
As they exit the Hall, they passed the Gryffindor table and Draco bent down to whisper in Caelie’s ear.  
"See that boy? The one with the scar and the glasses? Stay away from him. He's bad news.”  
Caelie just looked at him.   
I don’t actually think she talks, he thought. Maybe she can’t, he argued with himself. Maybe she just doesn’t want to.  
"Every year, him and those friends of his get into some kind of situation that leaves them in the hospital wing for weeks. Plus they're Gryffindors. They don't like us. Stay away from them."  
She looked back at the group as if committing their faces to memory.  
She finally detached herself from his side when the left the Entrance Hall and headed down towards the dungeons, but still didn’t leave his side.   
When they reached the Common Room, Draco stood next to her as Snape explained the rules of Slytherin.   
“Snakes look after each other. If I hear of any fighting happening outside the confines of this dungeon, you will have me to answer to. We cannot give the rest of the school, teachers and students alike, any more reason to hate us. Unity above all else, remember it is cunning to hide your true self from those who would use it against you, keeping our secrets to ourselves is the best defense we’ve got” and with that Snape retreated from the Common Room, sweeping his billowing cloak out behind him as he left.  
—————  
The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy close of pewter grey swirled overhead as Snape swept down and distributed the class schedules. Caelie looked down at hers. Charms, History of Magic, Potions, and then late that night Astronomy.   
Draco looked over her shoulder, “Not bad, for a Monday. I can show you to Charms, I have Transfiguration first thing.”  
Caelie started to get up, but Draco pushed her back down.  
“Eat first” and proceeded to place two rolls and some eggs on her plate, ignoring the pocketing of one of the rolls, and ate himself.  
Caelie had almost finished when a large eagle owl swooped down and landed gracefully on Draco’s shoulder, and holding out her leg for him to take the package off of it.  
“Thank you, Artemis” he said, giving his owl some bacon rinds snatched off Goyle’s plate.  
Draco removed the package and opened it. More cakes and sweets from his mother. He passed a hard boiled sweet to Caelie, who smiled at him before slipping it into her pocket, presumably for later.  
Artemis hooted, nipped affectionately at his ear and then took off again, soaring out the open windows at the top of the Hall.   
When they had finished, Draco stood up, Caelie quickly following, and exited the Great Hall.   
He walked her to her Charms class and before she went in told her that he would meet her here after lessons so he could show her where History of Magic was. He watched as she walked in and then left.  
I wonder how she’ll do, especially if she refuses to speak. I’ll have to tell Sev when he meets with us this weekend. Maybe he could do something.  
—————  
Severus Snape always met individually with his older students during the first weekend of the term. He answered to their questions and listened to their concerns, paying special attention to those whom he knew had a rough home life and making sure everything was going smoothly in their classes. If there were any problems, or were going to be any problems, he normally heard about it before things got out of hand.   
Snape had already met with his 7th years as most of them didn’t have classes on Friday, and had already worked his way down to his last 5th year when there was a knock on the door.  
“Come in” he called, and his godson, Draco Malfoy, entered.  
“Draco, I didn’t expect you until this afternoon” he said with surprise.  
“Sorry Sir, I can come back then if you wish.”  
“Don’t be stupid, stay. I didn’t have another meeting until then anyway” Snape snapped, “what is it?”  
“Well, Sir, it’s one of the first years, Ms. Northrop. I’m worried about her,” Snape looked at his godson. Since when did Draco start concerning himself with the wellbeing of others.   
“Northrop, she’s the muggle-born, isn’t she?”   
Draco nodded.  
“And what is your concern?” Snape asked, genuinely interested now.  
“Sir, she doesn’t speak. And I don’t think she has any friends in her year. I know you don’t meet with the first years until next month, but I think you might want to make an exception for her. She doesn’t eat either, not unless I put the food on her plate. She pockets the rolls”   
Snape knew what Draco was getting at, he had taught Draco to look for that exact thing when his year mate Nott did it.   
“Very well, I’ll see if I can arrange it” he said, smiling to himself. It was refreshing to see Draco concerned with someone other than himself. Maybe he wouldn’t turn out like his father after all.  
“Thank you, Sir” Draco said, looking relieved.  
“Now that you’re here, would you mind telling me about your own week?” Snape asked.  
“Of course, Sir” and Draco proceeded to tell Snape all about his classes.  
There had been the Blast-Ended Skrewts in Care of Magical Creatures, the Unforgivable Curses in Defense, and the fact that Moody hated all the Slytherins, his struggles in Transfiguration and his confusion in Ancient Runes due to Professor Babbling’s horrendous handwriting.  
“But, all in all, it’s been an okay week. I don’t think I’ll have many problems” Draco concluded.  
“I will ask Moriarty in 7th year if he’d be willing to help you in both Transfiguration and Ancient Runes as he is proficient in both”  
“Thank you, Sir”  
“And I will keep an eye on Professor Moody, I have heard the same account from all the older students who still have Defense. It doesn’t surprise me, he was an Auror after all, it would do well if you were to all stay on his good side. That means no pranking, be on your best behaviour, we don’t want him hating us more than he already does. I’ll tell the others”  
Draco nodded his understanding.  
“If that is all?” Snape inquired. Before Draco could say anything else he added, “and yes, I will check in on the Northrop girl.”  
“Thank you, Sir. That is all” Draco said politely.  
“Very well, be on your way then,” Snape said pulling out a piece of parchment and wetting his quill.   
He did not look up to see Draco leave as he wrote a summons for Ms. Northrop to see him Sunday night, he would be done with the rest of his meetings by then. He called for his house elf.  
“Fae, I need you to deliver this note to a Ms. Northrop, first year, Slytherin.”  
“Yes, Sir” Fae said, bowing deeply, “right away, Sir” and then popped out of existence.


	2. Chapter 2

Saturday evening, in the Common Room, a house elf came to deliver a message to Caelie as she was seated next to Draco, who was helping her with her Charms homework.   
“Fae has a message for Miss Northrop, miss. From Master Snape, miss” the elf said bowing slightly and handing the parchment to Caelie.  
Caelie read it, the house elf stood still, obviously waiting for an answer.   
Knowing Caelie wouldn’t be answering, Draco read the note over her shoulder and smiled. He knew his Godfather would listen to him. Draco turned to the house elf.  
“Tell Snape that I, Draco Malfoy, will make sure she gets there on time.”  
“Yes, Mister Malfoy, sir” Fae said with a slightly deeper bow than before and once again, popped out of existence, no doubt bringing his message back to Snape.  
Caelie looked at him in concern.  
“Don’t worry, little one, he meets with all his Snakes at the beginning of the year to talk about classes and home and friends and stuff like that. He’s just making sure that everyone is okay. I met with him this morning. I was having trouble in Transfiguration and Ancient Runes and he assigned me a tutor. You aren’t in trouble” Draco explained.  
Caelie looked slightly pacified, but still nervous.  
“You don’t have to speak to him if you don’t want to. You could write it down, nod your head, shake your head. There’s plenty of ways to communicate without speaking, if you don’t feel comfortable with it.”  
With that Caelie looked a lot less nervous.  
I wonder why she’s so set against speaking. It’s almost as if she’s afraid of it. Just like she’s afraid of Moody,  he realised.   
—————  
When the time came, Draco escorted Caelie down to Snape’s office and knocked on the door.  
“Come in” was the muted reply.  
Draco opened the door and ushered Caelie inside. He introduced Caelie. Snape nodded.  
“Thank you, Draco, please take a seat Ms. Northrop. Draco, you may leave.”  
Both Draco and Snape saw Caelie’s flinch at his dismissal.  
“Will you call me, Sir, when she’s done? I can walk her back” Draco suggested, hoping to ease Caelie’s fear.  
“I will walk her back, Draco. Please leave so I can speak with her privately.”  
“I’ll see you in the Common Room then, Caelie,” Draco said, defeated and then left, closing the door softly behind him.   
“So, Ms. Northrop, it seems that my Godson has taken quite an interest in your well being. Do you know why that is?”  
Caelie shook her head.  
I don’t either he thought.  
He walked back to his desk, causing Caelie to flinch as he passed her.  
“Do not worry, despite how I seem in the classroom, I do not bite. I will not harm you,” he said gently.  
Remembering what Draco said about her lack of speech he asked, “Would you like to speak with me, or merely answer questions?”  
She shook her head and then nodded.  
Well, that answers that. He sighed. This could turn out to be very difficult.  
“Do you know sign language?” he asked, it would make things easier if she did.  
*Little* she signed.  
“Okay, let’s try that” Snape said, just a bit relieved that he wouldn’t be restricted to yes or no questions.  
“I normally meet with first years after their first month so that they can get a handle on everything and so I can observe them fully, but Draco suggested I meet with you earlier, do you know why that is?” he asked.  
She shook her head.  
“How are you settling in?”  
A shrug.  
*D-R-A-C-O nice* she signed.  
“Is everything okay with your classes?”  
*hard new learn*  
“I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it soon. Until then, I’m certain Draco would be pleased to help you.”  
She nodded.  
“Do you miss home?” Based on what she knew of her eating habits, he guessed the answer.  
She shook her head sharply.   
“Did you go to school back home?”  
She nodded.  
“Is that where you learned to sign?”  
*Teacher help nice* she looked sad.  
“What happened to your teacher?” Clearly there was a story there.  
*Leaving*   
“They left?”  
She shook her head.  
“You left?”   
Nod.  
“Why?”  
*Uncle like no help*  
“You live with your uncle?” he asked.  
She nodded.  
“Anyone else?”  
She shook her head.  
“Where are your parents?”  
*Leaving dead*  
Why didn’t Dumbledore tell me, he knows these things, and he always tells the Heads of House about situations like this so they would not upset their charges.  
“So your uncle took you out of school after the teacher taught you sign language?”  
She nodded.  
“Why?”  
*rules*  
“Can you speak?”  
She shrugged.  
This was getting no where.  
“Caelie,” he said gently, she started at the use of her first name, “there is an easier way of doing this if you would like, but I need your permission.”  
*what?*  
“I can look into your mind and you can show me your uncle and your school. Just think of them and I will see. If there is anything you don’t want me to see, imagine putting it into a room and shutting the door. I will not open any doors I find. Okay?”  
She shrugged, thinking it over. It would be easier she thought, then nodded.  
“Very good. Now take a deep breath and imagine the doors, look me in the eye and nod when you are ready.”  
It took her a few minutes before she looked up and nodded.  
“Legilimens” he said softly.  
—————  
Snape found himself in a garden filled with many small pools. A cat appeared and led him to the first pool. He looked in and saw fast moving images. He concentrated and the images turned themselves into a reel of film that looped over and over.  
It was Caelie being pulled out of school, rather roughly by the look of it, by her uncle. He continued to watch. There was no sound, but he could very clearly see that her uncle was yelling at her. As soon as he realised this, he heard what was being said.  
“I will not have any more of your freakishness, girl, do you hear me? You don’t ask questions, you don’t speak, and you don’t learn freakish languages”  
Caelie just allowed herself to be pulled into the car and driven off.  
Snape looked away from the pool. The cat meowed to get his attention and then led him to another pool.  
Caelie was in a hospital, with beeping machines surrounding her. She was younger than before.  
“Oh hello, dear, I didn’t see that you were awake. How are you feeling?” a passing nurse asked.  
“I hurt” Caelie replied. So she could speak. That was good to know.  
“I know dear, we did the best we could” the nurse said gently.  
“Where’s my mummy?” Caelie asked.  
The nurse looked down. Clearly something had happened to her mum.  
“There was a fire and my mum woke me up, where is she?” Caelie asked.  
“Let me just go get your uncle. He’s right outside, I’m sure he’ll answer all your questions” the nurse said, clearly unsure how to break the news that Snape knew must be coming.  
“No, no, no. Mummy” Caelie whispered, as her uncle walked in.  
He opened his mouth to say something, but the memory stopped to loop again from the beginning.  
He looked down at the cat, who simply led him to another pool.  
Caelie cooking, Caelie cleaning, her uncle shouting, Caelie crying in a small, dark room, Caelie in the emergency room, the cycle repeated with few variations, but a mantra had started up in the background “mustn’t speak, mustn’t be heard, freak, freak, freaks don’t eat, don’t deserve, mustn’t, mustn’t speak, no, no uncle, please no, mustn’t speak.” Snape was horrified. He watched as the cycle slowed down. Her uncle came home, clearly drunk and holding a bottle, he yelled Caelie tried to get away but the bottle came swinging down, hitting her throat, the mantra became garbled. Maybe she couldn’t speak then he thought. The scene changed, they were in the backyard and Caelie was gardening, her uncle came out, a bottle in hand and started yelling at her.  
Suddenly, there was a great cry of “NO,” the sound of a slamming door, and Snape was forcibly ejected from her mind.  
—————  
Snape was back in his office chair, completely out of breath and Caelie was in front of him, curled up into the smallest form she could manage, crying silently. Snape made to stand up and Caelie flinched, he knew why now.   
“Shh, it’s okay, you’re here now, he can’t hurt you. I won’t let him hurt you,”  
He shushed, talking gently, walking over to her. She continued to cry. He knelt before her and pulled her into his arms, she stiffened slightly, but as she listened to his calming words she relaxed into him.  
He picked her up. Then, standing and pulling out his wand, transfigured her seat into a larger, softer chair, before settling into it with Caelie in his lap, her head pressed against his chest, still crying.   
He rocked her gently, still speaking those comforting words until she stopped crying. Looking down he saw that she had fallen asleep. He continued to rock her, thinking.   
He was going to have Dumbledore’s head for this.


	3. Chapter 3

Snape sat thinking for a long time before remembering that he still had Caelie in his lap. He looked down at her, tear tracks still visible on her face and remembered the bottle.  
She hadn’t made a sound as she cried, and he hoped that was due to practice, as awful at that was, rather than an inability due to her uncle and his temper. He leaned back and tried to check her neck, but the collar of her robes were covering it. He wasn’t about to undo that in order to check the neck of a female child he was holding in his lap after curfew. He should really get her back to her dorm.   
Sighing, he stood up, Caelie still in his arms. Transferring her weight, he found his cloak and swept it around the both of them before leaving his chambers and setting off for the Slytherin dorms.   
Filch tried to stop him once, and give Caelie a detention for being out of bounds after curfew, but Snape just sneered at him.  
“And who do you think she was with? It is my fault that she is not in bed currently. Do not punish another for my misdeeds.”  
Filch scowled and stalked off, his awful cat, Mrs. Norris, following behind.   
Reaching the portrait hole, he merely had to look at the portrait of Salazar Slytherin before he was granted entrance.  
Draco was sitting up by the fire, reading a book. He looked up when the portrait swung forward to admit Snape.  
“Took you long enough,” he said to Snape, still a bit miffed that he wasn’t allowed to stay with Caelie.  
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Snape asked.  
“I told Caelie that I would wait for her here, I didn’t want to become yet another person who failed at keeping their promises, I’m sure she’s already had her fair share of those.”  
Once again, Snape was shocked at the thought and compassion Draco was showing for the small girl in his arms.  
Upon seeing that Snape was carrying Caelie, Draco stood up.   
“What happened?” he asked.  
“We delved a little deeper into her home life than she was ready for, she started crying, I comforted her, and she fell asleep on me.”  
Draco raised an eyebrow.  
Snape raised one in return.  
“You let a first year cry on you?” Draco asked, a hint of mirth in his voice.  
“I comfort all of my Snakes who come to me with problems that I cannot fix,” Snape defended.  
“Go to bed, you can tell her in the morning that you waited on her for she will not find out tonight.”  
Snape left the Common Room and headed for the girls dorms, stopping at the first year door. He wrapped a muffliato around the pair of them and opened the door quietly so as not to disturb the other two girls who were already asleep.  
Caelie’s bed was on the far side of the room, tucked away in the corner.   
Interesting, I would have thought she’d be closer to the door for easy escape, but then again, maybe it’s so that she is not an easy target.  
After settling her in bed, Snape took one last look at her, a funny sensation in his chest. He left as quietly as they’d come and returned to the Common Room, where Draco was still sat.  
“I thought I told you to go to bed?” Snape asked, now a little annoyed.  
“I thought it was more of a friendly suggestion rather than an order,” Draco replied.  
“Now it isn’t. Go. To. Bed. And don’t let me hear of you moping around here like a lovesick chit,” Snape ordered.  
“I am not lovesick. I’m concerned. She’s lost and afraid and I want to help her, not get into her knickers,” Draco hissed.  
“I’m glad to hear that, seeing as she is only 11 years old.”  
“I am well aware of that, thank you very much. Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me I should worry less about myself and more about others, that paying attention to those around me will protect me better than not paying them any attention at all?”  
“I’m just warning you to be careful with her, she has been through more than you know,” Snape acquiesced.  
“And how would you know that, she doesn’t speak a word?” Draco demanded.  
“That is none of your business, Draco, now go to bed. Don’t make me tell you again.”   
The tone of Snape's voice left no room for argument and, defeated, Draco stomped off to bed.  
—————  
Snape stormed up the Headmaster’s office.   
To hell with reasonable hours, I want to know why I wasn’t told about Caelie, why nothing was done to help her. She wasn’t the child of a Death Eater like the others he’s ignored, there was no reason for her to be “forgotten” like that while at the mercy of her Uncle.   
“Fizzing Whizbees” Snape growled at the gargoyle guarding the staircase leading to the Headmaster.   
It jumped aside. Snape headed up the staircase and pounded on the door.  
He was startled when he heard a voice asking him to come in.   
He slammed through the door and saw Dumbledore calmly seated behind his desk as though waiting for him.   
Blast it all, Snape thought.  
“Yes, my boy? You wanted to speak with me?” Dumbledore asked, a small smile in his eyes.   
“Yes,” Snape said sharply, “why wasn’t I told of Ms. Northrop’s situation?”   
“I didn’t think it was necessary for you to know. She lives happily with her uncle, on her mother’s side of course. They didn’t know who the father was, so they couldn’t contact any of his family.”  
“Happy?” Snape spat, he strode over to the pensive and pulled out the memories he had seen in Caelie, “You call this happy?” He shoved the pensive at Dumbledore.  
“Watch,” he hissed.  
He paced the room as Dumbledore watched, trying to calm himself. He stopped suddenly.  
What had Dumbledore meant by they didn’t know who the father was? Did Dumbledore know? Who was they? Who was the father? Maybe Caelie wasn’t entirely muggleborn after all.  
Dumbledore surfaced.  
“I’m sure I didn’t know about any of that. My sources told me that she lived happily with her uncle, even though she was a quiet child.”  
Sources?  
Snape was incandescent with rage, “Quiet? The girl doesn’t speak. I have yet to learn if it is because she is traumatized or if it’s because of her blasted uncle with his drunken temper.”  
Snape took a deep breath, counting to ten.   
“Headmaster, what do you mean by they didn’t know of the father? Why did you have people watching Ms. Northrop? Who is the father?” Snape said through clenched teeth.  
“There was no father listed on her birth certificate. I had people watching because there was a lot of accidental magic at Caelie’s place of residence,” Dumbledore skirted around the last question.  
There was more to it than that, Snape was certain, but he wouldn’t push. He might not agree with his methods, but everything Dumbledore did, was done for a reason. He would tell Snape when he felt it was time for Snape to know, or Snape would find out for himself. Surely someone  knew of her father.   
“Very well, Headmaster. I will ignore your blatant disregard for her safety as she was not yet a student. But now, knowing this, I cannot allow you to send her back there over the summer,” Snape said coldly.  
“And where do you suggest she goes?” Dumbledore asked.  
“She can stay with me, she has already shown a talent for potions, she can help me with the preparations and gathering of ingredients,” Snape suggested.  
“I will think on it,” Dumbledore said.  
Snape turned to leave, but Dumbledore said, “And what of Harry?”  
Harry, that’s all Dumbledore was concerned about.  
“The arrogant brat show no less ineptitude than he’s shown for the past three years. Now, Headmaster, may I leave?” Snape snapped.  
“Go, Snape. Get a good night’s rest. As I recall you have double potions tomorrow morning with the third year Hufflepuffs.”  
“That I do. Goodnight, Headmaster,” Snape said as he left.  
—————  
Snape continued to watch Caelie, as did Draco.  
At the beginning of the week, Snape had sent out messages asking the other teachers what they thought of Caelie.  
The majority of the answers stated that they thought she was a very intelligent child, but that she was unable to perform even the simplest of spells due to her refusal to speak aloud, Snape rolled his eyes at this, and that she never answered questions, even those asked directly to her.  
Snape knew she had already been assigned extra homework because the teachers felt she didn’t know the subjects well enough and that was why she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, participate in class, because Draco had told him after spending an hour alone helping her in Charms.  
The only response that was different, was from Professor Binns, who stated that he did not have a Ms. Northrop in any of his classes and Professor Snape must be mistaking her for someone else. Snape had expected nothing less.  
On Wednesday morning, Snape had the Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years for potions.  
Snape watched Caelie interactions, or rather, lack of interactions with others during class.  
“Ms. Quirke, return to your original partner and finish the potion, I’m sure your friends won’t mind if they go without you for an hour,” Snape said coldly, as Orla Quirke from Ravenclaw moved away from Caelie to join with another group.  
“But, Sir, Northrop already finished the potion, I was going to help the others so that I, too, could make it,” Quirke protested.  
“Did you not help Ms. Northrop with the potion?” Snape asked.  
“No, Sir, she did it all by herself, she wouldn’t let me help,” Quirke said, shooting a dark look at Caelie.  
“5 points from Ravenclaw for not assisting your partner in the group activity,”  
Quirke opened her mouth to protest, but before she could say anything Snape added, “and if I hear another word from you it will be another 10 points, now get back to your partner, help her clean up if you are indeed finished”  
“Ms. Northrop, please stay after, I need to have a word with you.”  
Caelie nodded. Quirke huffed.  
When class had finished, Quirke left with the rest of her friends and Caelie stayed, sat at her worktable.   
“Why did you brew the potion all by yourself?” Snape asked her.  
*Q-U-I-R-K-E slow*  
“I’m surprised. Not many first years could brew that potion, by themselves, at that speed, without ruining the potion entirely. You have already proven yourself proficient at the subtle art of potion making. Why do you think that is?”  
*Like cook Uncle*  
“You liked cooking for your uncle?”  
She shrugged.  
“Or you liked cooking and your uncle just happened to enjoy the product?”  
With that Caelie smiled. Snape felt his chest clench. It was good to see the girl smile.  
“That is not the reason I asked you to stay behind, I was merely curious. I would like to take you to see Madam Pomfrey, she is the school nurse and a rather good friend of mine. I would like her to talk with you, if that’s okay?”  
Caelie thought about it.  
“You would be free from the rest of your classes today, of course. I don’t know how long it will take,” he added, remembering what Draco had said about her reaction to Moody, whom she had class with next.  
She nodded at his words.  
“Very well, I will tell Professors Moody and Flitwick not to expect you, as you are with me, and I will have Draco pick up any assignments they might give,” he bent to write a note to Draco and then walked to Caelie, who still hadn’t moved, stopping only to place the note on Draco’s desk, as he had him next.   
“Come,” he said as he reached the door, looking back to see she was hesitating by her desk.  
He walked back to her and after hesitating for only a moment, he held out his hand, gesturing to her. She took it, and they proceeded to walk up to the Hospital Wing.  
As they passed the 4th year class waiting outside his door, Snape said, “Go in, the potions have set, finish what you started yesterday. Malfoy, Granger, you are in charge, make sure that nobody dies while I am away. I’m sure you’ll know what to do.”   
Before anyone could protest he had already swept away, Caelie still holding his hand.  
Only a few stragglers saw them, but nobody commented, being to scared of Snapes sneer to say anything. They reached the Hospital Wing without any problems, and Snape led Caelie inside.  
Madame Pomfrey saw them enter and came bustling over to them.  
“Ah, Snape, I got your note, and you,” she said looking down at the small child now hiding in Snape’s robes, still holding his and, “must be Ms. Northrop, correct?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Come into my office, would you? I’d like to speak to the both of you,” and she led them to a room with windows that viewed the wing.   
Snape set Caelie down, and when she let go of his hand, pulled up a chair and sat down beside her. 


	4. Chapter 4

Poppy watched them enter her office, smiling to herself. It was good to see Severus happy, though she wouldn’t tell him that if he’d asked why she was smiling. She quickly wiped the smile from her face.  
“Professor Snape tells me you’re becoming very proficient in potions. Do you enjoy potions?” Pomfrey asked while subtly casting a diagnostics charm over Caelie.   
Caelie nodded.  
Pomfrey looked at Snape and raised an eyebrow, Snape raised on in return.  
“How about your other classes? Do you like herbology?”  
Caelie nodded again, she was glad that Pomfrey hadn’t asked her about Charms or Transfiguration. She was always getting in trouble in those two classes, loosing points for not speaking up. Her teachers thought she was refusing to learn the spells, they didn’t know that she desperately wanted to learn magic, and would do almost anything they asked, but she mustn’t speak. Her uncle would be so angry with her if he knew they were trying to teach her another “freakish language” and how to do things like levitate feathers and turn straws of hay into needles.  
“What about History of Magic?” Pomfrey asked, she was careful to avoid subjects such as Charms, Transfiguration and Defense, remembering what Snape had told her about her refusal to speak and her aversion towards Moody.  
Caelie shrugged and Pomfrey chuckled.  
“Not many students enjoy his classes, they haven’t for a long time, even before he died.”  
Caelie smiled at this.  
Pomfrey finished running the diagnostics and a parchment appeared on her desk. She quickly made a copy of it and handed it to Snape. They would read it later when Caelie was no longer in the room, no doubt it would be distressing to her.  
*M-A-G-I-C no talk what* Caelie signed suddenly.  
Pomfrey looked to Snape, who looked back at Caelie. She was staring at Pomfrey with desperation.  
“I’m sorry, Caelie, I missed what you said, may you repeat it?” Snape asked.  
Caelie did so.  
“She’s asking how you did magic without speaking, correct?” Snape told Pomfrey, Caelie nodded.  
“I’ll ask you how you know sign language later, Severus,” Pomfrey said, then turned to Caelie and explained, “I’ve been studying magic for a long time, when you get good enough at a spell, you can perform it wordlessly. It takes practice and determination, but not all witches and wizards require words to work their magic. I find I can do simple spells without saying anything, but more complex ones require me to speak the incantation in order for them to work.”  
*What time learn me*   
“How long will it take for you to learn?” Snape asked, trying to translate the broken signs.  
Caelie nodded.  
“Most students don’t start learning until their 6th year, after they’ve sat their OWL exams.”  
Caelie looked crestfallen. She had finally thought she could learn magic without breaking her uncles rules, but there was no way she’d make it to 6th year, she’d be kicked out long before then for failing everything they tried to teach her. They’d think she didn’t want to learn.  
Seeing Caelie’s look of sudden defeat, Snape added, “Maybe I can speak with the Headmaster and we can work something out for you.”  
The look of hope on Caelie’s face nearly killed him.  
“Maybe,” he repeated.   
She nodded in understanding, and then yawned.  
Catching the yawn, Pomfrey said, “Come, why don’t you take a nap, little one.”  
She led Caelie out of her office and settled her on a bed right outside the window.  
“There, you can see Severus, and he can see you, I’ll put up curtains so you won’t be disturbed,” she took a phail of dreamless sleep out of her pocket and handed it to her, “take this, it will help you go to sleep without any disturbances.”  
Caelie looked at Snape through the window, he nodded and gestured for her to drink what Madam Pomfrey had given her. She trusted Snape. He wouldn’t hurt her. She drank it, then laid back on the pillows and closed her eyes.  
Pomfrey tutted and situated her more comfortably, tucking her in, before heading back to her office.  
Now they could go over the diagnostic.  
Snape was already reading his copy of the report, no doubt looking for the bottle event. She looked down at her own report. Nothing had happened until her mother had died, when Caelie had sustained minor burns to her feet and legs and major smoke damage to her lungs. After that event, there were many cases of bruises and sprains, the severity of which got worse and worse  until suddenly they stopped. Curious. A year later everything started up again, much worse than it ever was before. Broken bones, deep cuts, malnutrition, the kind that came with starvation and not simply a lack of healthy food in the house. She found the point where there were deep lacerations to the throat. There was nothing about damage to the vocal cords. She scanned the rest of the parchment, noticing that everything stopped again, just before coming to Hogwarts. But there was no damage to the vocal cords. She could speak, she just chose not to.   
Not that I blame her, poor dear, I wouldn’t wish this kind of treatment on a dog I didn't like.  
Snape cleared his throat.  
“So?” he asked, clearly waiting for her opinion.  
“So what, dear?” she questioned innocently.  
“You know what I mean, Poppy, can she speak?” he asked impatiently.  
“There has been no damage to her vocal cords, so physically, she can make sound. However, I assume that she has been traumatized and suspect silence is simply her mechanism of coping, or that it is part of the abuse she suffered from her uncle.”  
“The latter, I’m afraid. The bastard didn’t let her speak, didn’t even let her use sign, though she did have a teacher who taught her for a year,” Snape said, sighing, “at least it’s mental and not physical, though it may turn out to be just as bad.”  
“Speaking of sign, where did you learn sign language, Severus? I don’t recall you ever being unable to speak,” Poppy asked remembering her promise to ask him about it.  
“A boy on my street when I was younger. He was deaf. Nobody would play with him, and as nobody would play with me, we ended up being outcasts together. He taught me. He moved away about a year before I met Lily,” Snape explained.  
Remembering a similar period in the diagnostic, Poppy asked Snape if he knew anything of it.  
“I didn’t see anything of that year, I don’t have any idea what could cause the sudden stop, nor what made it start up again,” Snape admitted, “I hate not knowing something like that about a child in my care. Normally Dumbledore would tell me about something like that, but the Headmaster seems to think my ignorance on the subject is necessary for whatever he has planned.”  
He looked at the clock on Poppy’s desk, “I’d better go back to my classes and make sure they aren’t in danger of blowing themselves up.”   
He stood with a sigh.  
“Look after her, Poppy, and when she wakes make sure she eats, she won’t unless you tell her to, and even then she won't finish unless you watch her.”  
“Don’t tell me how to do my job, Severus,” she said with false annoyance, “Go, take care of your classes, I’ll send her down to the dungeons when she’s eaten and let you know she’s on her way.”  
With that Snape swept off to his class, and arrived just in time to stop Longbottom from turning his draft of dreamless sleep into a potion similar to the draught of living death that would have put everyone who breathed the fumes into a deep and possibly irreversible sleep.  
Dratted Longbottom, Snape thought savagely while giving him a tongue lashing and docking 25 points from Gryffindor.   
There, now he felt better.


	5. Chapter 5

After Snape left, Pomfrey went to go check on her other patient, or rather patient. Lee Jordan, it seemed, got the bad end of something the Weasley twins gave him, and she was having a hard time stopping him from vomiting. At least he wasn’t doing it as frequently as he had been before Snape had come in. She told him he could leave if he could hold down a piece of toast and some water. So far he hadn’t been able to.   
But he was sleeping now, and she hadn’t seen a second rendition of his last meal.  
I’ll let him sleep for now, the poor boy deserves it for putting up with those two rascals.  
—————  
Neither of her patients woke until supper time.  
She called a house elf to bring up a tray of food for each of them, and after making sure Jordan’s meal wasn’t going to make another appearance, she let Jordan go. When she looked back on Caelie, the girl hadn’t touched her meal.  
Should have know Snape would be right.   
“Northrop dear, you have to eat. I got this special for you,” she encouraged.  
Caelie looked skeptically at what was on her plate, then looked up at Poppy questioningly.  
“Go ahead, it’s yours,” she sat down at Caelie’s feet. She was going to have to watch her after all.  
She watched Caelie take a tentative bite.  
When Pomfrey didn’t take the meal away from her, she began eating with a bit more confidence, still cautious that the food might be taken away from her like it had been so many times with her uncle. Only when she had completely finished did Pomfrey even reach for the tray.   
Poppy moved the tray to the bedside table and then helped Caelie out of bed and sent her on her way.  
As she walked out of the Hospital Wing, she ran into two Ravenclaw fourth years, who stopped when they saw her.   
“So you’re the chit Malfoy’s staked a claim on,” one of the boys said.  
“And she’s Quirke’s potions parter, always showing poor Orla up,” the other said, “Orla only wants to learn, and she’s not letting her. I say we teach her a lesson.”  
“Malfoy and his goons aren’t here to protect you now,” the first boy said, stalking closer to Caelie, who backed up until she it a wall.  
She looked frantically around for an escape, but could find none. She was cornered.  
“Look how frightened she is,” the second boy laughed, “like a little rabbit.”  
“I heard she doesn’t speak, she does something freaky with her hands to speak to Professor Snape,” the first one said.  
“Good, that means she can’t scream.”  
At the word “freak” Caelie completely lost her mind. She knew what came after that word. She ducked and ran between them. Or tried to. The second boy stopped her with a long arm and pushed her against the wall.  
“You need to learn a lesson, freak,” he spat.   
She closed her eyes and wished for Draco or Snape to find her when this was over.  
Suddenly, she heard another voice. A new one.  
“Do my eyes deceive me, Gred?”  
“I don’t believe they do, Forge” a second voice answered.  
“A damsel in distress,” the voices said together.  
“Don’t worry damsel,” the first one called.  
“We shall save you!” the second one announced.  
Caelie opened her eyes to see two tall boys with blazing hair and mischievous eyes. The two boys who had been picking on her turned around cautiously as well, it was a common rumor in Ravenclaw that the Weasley twins were insane. You didn’t want to get on their bad side.  
“Boot, Corner, what are you two doing picking on an ickle firstie?” the first twin asked.  
“I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart?” the second asked.  
The boys, Boot and Corner, bristled at that.  
“And what is it to you?” the first one, Corner asked.  
“Well, seeing as you have it for our sister—”  
“—We’d say you have no business with her.”   
They gestured at Caelie.  
“I don’t have it for your sister,” Corner protested.  
“Sure you don’t—”  
“—We’ve seen you, and we don’t like the looks of you.”  
“Especially if you think picking on firsties—”  
“—Is your kind of entertainment.”  
“And you, Boot, did you learn nothing in the Dueling Club?” the first twin turned on the boy.  
“Though I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t learn dueling”  
“Neither did we.”  
“But you should have learned—”  
“—Not to pick on those Snape favours—”  
“—Or he’ll have your head.”  
“And wouldn’t it be hard to pass your classes without your head?”  
“Although someone did break his nose, Gred” the first twin said, turning to his brother, “you can’t blame him for not remembering the rest of that lesson.”  
“Right you are, Forge. Maybe we should teach it to him again. It wouldn’t be that hard to get Snape up here, I reckon.”  
“Nah, you’d just have to get Filches attention first.”  
The both looked back at the Ravenclaws together causing both Boot and Corner to cower, in much the same way as they had made Caelie cower minutes before.  
“Maybe they’ll learn with a warning,” one of the twins said darkly.  
“Don’t go picking on firsties.”  
“And don’t pick on those who are in favour with Snape.”  
“Consider her in favour with us too,”  
“I’m sure you know what happens to those who cross us.”  
“Now scram.”  
Boot and Corner fairly ran up the corridor to get away from the twins.  
The twins watched them go, and when they couldn’t see them anymore, they turned back to Caelie.  
“Hello little one,”  
“Who might you be?”  
She just shook her head.  
“Oh, you’re that one, what was her name?” he asked his twin  
“Northrop, Caelie Northrop, right?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Hello, Ina, this here’s George,” the first twin said gesturing to his mirror image.  
“And that one’s Fred,” George said with a grin, “but you can call us Gred and Forge, that’s what our mother calls us.”  
“Never remembers our name, that woman.”  
“You’d think she would too, having known us all our lives.”  
“Though I suppose she hasn’t know us all hers,” Fred reasoned.  
They started walking towards the Hospital Wing.  
“Walk with us,”  
“We need to check on a friend of ours who was staying there,”  
“We’ll walk you back to Snape when we’re done.”  
Caelie, seeing no reason not to trust them, followed behind the twins.   
Pomfrey met them at the doors, and upon seeing Fred and George, started lecturing them on poisoning their friends.  
“We’re just here to see if he’s all right,”  
“Well, that and to know how you did it if he is, we couldn’t figure it out.”  
“I won’t tell you, you’ll have to figure it out yourselves. Just don’t go testing on other people until you know how to stop it. Jordan’s fine, just a bit dehydrated, but as long as he drinks plenty of water tonight and tomorrow he won’t feel any different. Or at least he shouldn’t. If he turns up tomorrow, I’m blaming you two,” Pomfrey lectured, and then when she saw Caelie added, “What are you doing back here, dear, I thought I told you to go to your Common Room?”   
“She had a run in with two fourth year boys, so we thought we’d take her down after we checked  on Lee.”  
“Make sure no one else bothered her.”  
“She’s a little lonesome Slytherin after all.”  
“Anyone would take a go at her.”  
“They didn’t hurt her, did they?” Pomfrey asked, concerned.  
“Not that we saw,” Fred said, looking at his brother.  
George looked down at Caelie, “Did they hurt you, little Ina?”  
Caelie shook her head.  
“Very well, take her to Snape, perhaps you can think of how to explain what happened more clearly on the way down. You know as well as I, that he will ask,” Pomfrey sighed.  
“Yes, ma’am” they said, saluting to the matron.   
She just shook her head at their antics and watched them leave.  
—————  
The trio ran into Draco, who had been looking for Caelie, on their way down to see Snape.  
At first, Draco had been very hostile towards the twins, but seeing Caelie’s trust in them, began to relax, he still demanded to know why they had taken such an interest in Caelie’s wellbeing though.  
“We could ask you the same thing, young Malfoy,”  
“But we know you wouldn’t answer.”  
“We can, however, tell you exactly how Little Ina fell into our care this afternoon.”  
Draco looked confused at the nickname, but just gestured for the twins to get on with it. His face darkened as they explained the encounter with Terry Boot and Michael Corner.   
“Pomfrey told us to come down with her, to see Snape and tell him what happened,” George concluded.  
“And to make sure Little Ina got there safely,” Fred added.  
Draco just decided to let the nickname go.  
“I’ll take her to Snape and tell him what you told me, you can leave, but he might ask you down later to confirm what I tell him.”  
“No, we want to make sure she gets to Snape,”  
“We got her this far already.”  
“Go, leave her with me, and go plan something for them. I heard you gave Lee Jordan something that wouldn’t make him stop puking. Your little brother knows how to do that and have one puke slugs. I’ll be disappointed if the Ravenclaw Common Room doesn’t have a slug problem, or something equally as vile next time I see you.”  
“You do know how to tempt a man, Draco,” Fred said with a wink.  
“I know what Ickle Ronnikins sees in you,” George said grinning.  
Draco shuddered.  
“Please tell me he doesn’t actually” he begged.  
“Nah, mate, he hates your guts,” George assured him.  
“Lucky for us,” Fred said, “all right, we’ll go, we might not have anything big for them, but we can work our way up to that later.”  
Draco nodded, and they turned arm in arm and marched back up towards the Great Hall. They had some planning to do.  
Draco looked back down at Caelie, who had been smiling through all the banter.  
“Why on earth do they call you Ina?” he asked.  
She just shrugged, as confused as he was about that.  
“Let’s go see Snape, I’m sure he’ll want to hear all about your little adventure, and you can even tell him about some of it, since he’ll understand you,” he started walking with her down the corridor, as an afterthought he added, “You two should teach me sign sometime. I’d love to be able to speak with you instead of at you.”   
—————  
Snape was furious when he heard the story, causing Caelie to hide behind Draco as he raged. Catching sight of her, he immediately calmed his outside appearance.  
“No, child, I am not angry at you, I am angry for you, Misters Boot and Corner ought to have known better,” he said gently, trying to calm her, “do you know why they did what they did?”  
Caelie nodded, and came out from behind Draco.  
“Can you tell me?”  
*F-R-E-A-K me*  
“Is that what they said?”  
Caelie nodded and looked down.  
Snape picked her up and sat down with her in his lap.  
“Listen to me very carefully, child, you are not a freak, despite what your uncle might have told you. You have magic, you are intelligent, you don’t speak, but these things make up who you are, they don’t make you a freak.”  
“Did they say anything else?”  
She nodded, but unsure how to tell him, just pointed at her own eyes and then to his and then nodded again.  
“You would like to show me?”  
She nodded.  
“Okay, let me know when you are ready.”  
It took her less time this time, and she looked up and nodded.  
“Legilimens” he whispered.  
Somewhere in the background, Draco gasped, but neither Snape nor Caelie let that destroy their concentration.  
—————  
Draco stood watching as his godfather held Caelie on his lap and looked in her mind.  
He knew Caelie had given Severus permission, but it still felt wrong.  
He saw Caelie twitch and heard Snape grunt before seeing something, he’d never thought he’d see.  
Snape wrapped Caelie in a hug, whispering to her to calm her down.  
After a while, Snape released her and sat back.  
In a normal voice he said, “I will set Ms. Quirke up with another group and you can work on your own, you seem to do better that way anyway. Unfortunately, I cannot do anything about Misters Boot and Corner unless there is physical damage, which lucky there isn’t, or if I see it personally, but I can ignore the Weasley’s pranks—”  
Apparently, Caelie had shown Snape their conversation before he had taken Caelie down to see Snape.   
“—and make potions difficult for the two of them, maybe that will be enough to get the message across. You are to tell me if they continue to bother you, do you understand?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Good, Draco” he said turning to look at him, “you will tell no one else of these events, and if I catch you with the Weasleys as they are making trouble, I will not ignore you. Your father would have my head.”  
“Yes, Sir, I understand.”  
“Now, take Ms. Northrop here back to the Common Room, as I understand it, she has quite a bit of Charms homework tonight that you might need to help her with,” Snape helped her down and then stood up.  
“Yes, Sir,” Draco said smiling, and taking Caelie’s hand, walked to the door, but before he reached it, he turned around.  
“Sir, do you know why the twins kept calling her Ina?”  
“I haven’t the foggiest. They knew her name, practically introduced her to themselves, but then almost immediately started calling her Ina. That’s something you’ll have to ask them.”  
“Thank you, Sir.”  
This time, they left.


	6. Chapter 6

Caelie kept her promise to tell Snape if anything happened. She didn’t know, not really, if it was Boot who pushed her down the staircase before dinner. People got shoved all the time. So what if her potion exploded? She hadn’t gotten hurt, and she had probably added too much moonstone, it was easy to do, after all. She ignored the hissed insults that followed her everywhere, they mightn’t be meant for her.   
Slowly things built up, pokes and prods, shoves and trips. She kept her head down and her mind shut. If Draco noticed, he didn’t say anything, and Snape was busy dealing with students every day. She didn’t want to bother them. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle.  
She covered her bruises the only way she knew how, the same way she had with her uncle. She imagined them gone, and let the tickling sensation, like cold water dripping over her skin, take away the blacks, blues and sickly greens that marred her skin. She knew now that the sensation was magic, she had felt it when trying to levitate her quill in the privacy of the hangings around her bed. She had felt it when seeing the quill twitch in a way she couldn’t have imagined. She remembered what Madam Pomfrey had told her, “When you get good enough at a spell, you can perform it wordlessly. It takes practice and determination, but not all witches and wizards require words to work their magic. I find I can do simple spells without saying anything.”   
She had taken those words to heart.  
If I practice long and hard enough, I can do magic without speaking. I mustn’t speak, Uncle would be angry with me.  
She still refused to go to Snape when the bullying got to the point where she couldn’t pretend she didn’t know it was for her. She had been silent for this long and she could go on in silence. Her uncle had taught her well.   
The number of her tormentors grew, Terry Boot and Michael Corner were only the first. There were those in Slytherin who didn’t approve of her being a Mudblood. Those in Gryffindor knew the little Snake wouldn’t tell anybody and they plucked up the courage to tell her exactly what they thought of her freakishness and the evil that resided in her soul, because all Slytherins were evil.   
She did notice, that while the boy Draco had warned her about did not take part in the tongue lashings and flinched every time the word “freak” was thrown at her, his ginger haired friend did, with relish.   
Fred and George and their friend Lee Jordan were also kind to her, but they never saw what was happening. Boot and Corner had spread the word of her protectors.   
Those who had classes with Caelie were not happy with her receiving top marks without, in their eyes, even trying.  
She took to leaving early from lessons, hiding in a bathroom on the second floor, where the sad, kind ghost would keep her company and prevent anyone else from using the bathroom, and arriving late to her next lessons so she would avoid the people in the corridors.   
Draco didn’t know she did this, he still waited outside her classes until the last person had left, baffled that he must have missed her again.   
She avoided the Great Hall as well, unless she saw Fred, George or Draco already seated, at which point she would cautiously enter and sit next to them.  
Fred and George, for their part, had noticed something was going on, they just hadn’t been able to spot what. They lamented having given the Map over to Harry, but he had needed it last year. They began sitting with Draco, Nott and Zabini (Crabbe and Goyle had left Malfoy when he started concerning himself with Little Ina) at the Slytherin table. At first it was fun to watch their brother turn bright red, but then it became more about interesting, intelligent, company than annoying their brother.   
Having been raised in Dark households, the three knew things that most Gryffindors would never dream of learning. Fred and George were not most. They wanted to learn too, it would help them, if they knew the theory, to develop their own spells, of course making them less dark than the original jinxes and hexes, but still worth the prank.   
It was one of the nights when Caelie, yet again, didn’t show up for dinner. Looking around, they saw Boot and Corner sitting at the Ravenclaw table laughing at something they were telling their dorm mate, Anthony Golstein. The sight made them feel uneasy, and as one, they stood up and left the table to go look for Little Ina.   
They stopped at the Gryffindor table, bent low over Harry, whispering “we need the help of a certain piece of parchment.”  
Harry, for his part, hid his surprise and pulled a potions book with the Map folded in it.  
“I don’t see why you would need a 4th year potions text. Surely you two know it cover to cover?”  
“We’re just covering our bases” George insisted.  
“It wouldn’t do for something—"   
“—Or someone.”  
“Right you are, George, or someone—” Fred amended.  
“—To be misplaced.”  
“Ta, Harry,” they both said with a wink, and left the Hall.  
Once in a private alcove, they opened the Map.  
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” Fred said.  
“Or someone else is,” George said darkly.  
The map bloomed ink in front of them.  
Fred tapped the map with his wand, “Locus hominum Caelie Northrop.”  
The ink on the map swirled before zooming in and focusing on a small dot in a dead end corridor near the potions classroom that had been abandoned in their first year due to some experiment gone wrong. No one would think to look there for the missing girl.   
They kept the map open to check for anyone as they headed to Caelie. They could see that something was wrong. The dot labeled Caelie Northrop wasn’t moving. They closed the map only when they were in the same corridor as Caelie’s dot.  
They couldn’t hear any movement. Fearing the worst, they began running down the corridor until they saw a small lump on the floor.  
Caelie.  
Their poor Little Ina was curled in on herself, unconscious and shivering, whoever had left her here had not been kind. She was covered in cuts and bruises with a split and swollen lip to top it off. It looked like they had tried to avoid her face so the results of their beating would not be seen, but someone had lost their temper.   
Just as they were about to do.  
Furious, Fred picked up Caelie, concerned by how light she was and her lack of protest.   
What had they done to her?  
George unfolded the Map once more and led them to the Hospital Wing making sure to avoid all other people.  
Caelie didn’t wake up the whole way there.  
“When I get my hands on whoever did this…” Fred muttered looking down at his precious cargo.  
“She’ll never say who it was, foolish lass,” George said.  
“Look what they did,” Fred protested.  
“We can’t see what they did, not yet anyways,” George reminded him.  
Fred knew his twin never allowed himself to show emotion, that was one of the main differences between the two. Fred wore his heart on his sleeve and George contained his concern within himself, allowing it to fester into something entirely different until the time when he allowed it to seek revenge on whomever had harmed someone he loved.   
“Still, if we find them, I swear—”  
George cut him off, “We will find them, and when we do, they’ll pay,” he promised his twin.  
They looked at each other and then down at the girl they had affectionately dubbed Ina, as she was too small to simply be a Nina.   
They called for Madam Pomfrey as soon as they entered the wing.  
“What is it now boys,” she demanded annoyed, “I just started supper…”  
She stopped when she saw who they were carrying.  
“What happened?” She whispered coming closer.  
“We don’t know.”  
“Come,” she ordered. They followed her to a bed just outside her office, in easy view from the window.  
“Put her down here” she commanded as she summoned dividers to offer privacy to the unconscious Slytherin.   
“Stay here while I call Snape,” she told them, marching off.  
“You should get Draco as well, he’ll want to hear about this too,” they called after her, before turning back and looking down at the girl.  
George pushed some hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear.  
“You know, with the right lighting, she could be one of us,” he said, not really thinking about the words coming out of his mouth.  
“That’s what I thought when I first saw her about to get sorted,” a voice behind them said.  
They turned around to see an out of breath Draco standing there.   
He walked closer and bending over, pressed his forehead to hers.  
“I’m so sorry Little One, I didn’t see,” he whispered.  
“I’m sure she doesn’t blame you,” George comforted.  
“We don’t, not really,” Fred added.  
“I should have seen though, all those times I couldn’t find her after class, how long has this been going on? Did it ever really stop?” Draco asked defeated as he sank into a chair by the head of the bed.   
“We didn’t see it either, Draco, you really can’t blame yourself,” Fred said, putting a hand on Draco’s shoulder.  
“If you want to blame anybody blame the gits who did this,” George said, gesturing to Caelie.  
“Do you know who it was?” Draco asked.  
Fred shook his head, but George stood up suddenly and pulled out, what Draco thought was a grubby piece of parchment.  
“Eventus revelare” Geore muttered.  
Fred nearly smacked himself.   
Of course.  
Eventus revelare was the spell that showed how to get through hidden passes, but if done correctly it could also let the Map show events that had already passed. Not in detail, but in this case, it should show the events that surrounded Caelie, as the Map was still focused on her. They wouldn’t be able to see what had happened, but they didn’t need to, they only needed to see the names of the dots that surrounded her until her dot stopped moving.   
George read the names aloud as he saw them.  
“Terry Boot, Michael Corner—”  
“No surprise there,” Draco muttered darkly, but Fred just shushed him.  
“—Tobias Knight, isn’t he in Slytherin?”  
Draco nodded, George went back to the parchment.  
“Zacharias Smith, and—” George gasped, “the little git.”  
“What?” Draco and Fred asked together.  
“And Ronald Weasley” he said.  
“Your brother?” Draco asked.  
“Well, not our brother anymore after this, but yeah, same guy,” George said, nonplused.   
How could Ron have done this?  
“I’d call him a bastard, but that would also insult our mother, and I actually respect her, unlike the slimy git. I can’t believe he’d actually do that,” Fred said.  
“Maybe the it’s lying or was tricked,” Draco said, trying to comfort the twins despite his distain for their younger brother.  
“The Map never lies—” Fred said.  
“—And it can’t be tricked, trust me, we’ve tried,” George finished.   
“I’m sorry,” Draco said.  
“Do my ears deceive me, George?” Fred asked, aghast.  
“I heard it too, Draco Malfoy, apologizing?” George said.  
Draco hit Fred, who was closer.  
“I always knew we would go insane together—” Fred moaned.  
“—But now we’re having the same hallucinations,” George wailed.  
Draco started laughing.  
“At least I’ll always have you,” Fred said, collapsing on his brother.  
“Or are you an illusion too?” George asked, shocked.  
They proceeded to poke and prod each other so they could determine if the other was real or not.  
They all stopped suddenly as they saw Pomfrey reappear with Snape at her back.  
“What is all the racket in here, Caelie needs quiet,” she said, disapprovingly.  
“Poppy, my love!” George exclaimed. Snape's lips twitched.  
“We fear we are going insane!” Fred said, falling to his knees at her feet.  
“I’m sorry, my dear boys, but I regret to inform you that it’s too late, you went insane a long time ago. There’s nothing I can do,” she said playing along with their game.  
“Well, that’s all right then” Fred said, standing up once more.  
“If it’s already happened and we didn’t notice it then—” George said, helping his brother up.  
“—Why should things be any different now?” Fred finished for his brother.  
“You two will be the death of me,” Snape growled, he went over to perch on the side of the bed and felt Caelie’s forehead.   
“Now tell me what happened,” he demanded not looking at any of them. He was aware of Poppy running a diagnostic spell as he checked her vital signs. He knew Poppy must have already done that, but he wanted to make sure for himself.  
“Well, you see—” Fred started.  
“Little Ina didn’t show up for dinner—”  
“It wasn’t the first time she was late.”  
“But it was the first time she didn’t show up at all.”  
“Get on with it,” Snape snapped.  
They nodded and then explained how they had found her lying in the empty corridor.  
“And how did you know how to look there?”  
They looked at each other, having a silent debate.  
Finally George said, “He's got to know if we’re to explain the rest.”  
“And to prove how we know who did it,” Fred reasoned.  
Snape let out a testy breath.  
“Okay, okay, keep your knickers on,” George said.  
Snape raised an eyebrow at him. George just grinned.  
And they explained the Map, how they focused it on Caelie, and then how they used it to reveal the events of the past few hours while it was still focused on her.  
Snape just nodded with the story. He’d ask to see the Map later, maybe when Caelie drifted into a natural sleep.  
“So you know who did it?”  
“Yeah,” this time it was Draco who spoke up, “Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Zachiarias Smith, and Ronal Weasley.”  
At the last name Snape looked sharply at the twins.  
“We know,” Fred sighed.  
“What we don’t know is why he, why any of them, did it.” George added.  
There was a rustling from the bed, and they all stopped to look down at Caelie, who curled, best she could, around the form of Snape, still sitting on the side of her bed. She nestled into the hand still atop her head and sighed.   
The tension by the bed, that no one knew was there, released and they all breathed deeply, glad that, for now, Caelie was going to be okay.  
I hope, Snape thought.   
He and Poppy left the three boys at her bedside and went to her office, still keeping a close watch over Caelie’s, now sleeping, form.   
Poppy picked up the parchment on her desk, made a copy of it, and handed it to Severus. They both read it with frowns on their faces.   
Snape carefully rolled up the parchment, setting it down and then dropped his head into his hands, sighing deeply.  
“I don’t know what to do with her, Poppy,” he confided, “She won’t speak to me.”  
“She won’t speak to anybody,” Poppy reminded him.  
“I told her to come to me if anything like this,” he gestured to the parchment, “happened again, but she didn’t, and now look.”  
“You’ve read her initial report, you of all people should know how hard it will be for her to trust any one, ever again,” Poppy said gently.   
“As to what to do with her, maybe I could call a friend of mine, who works at St. Mungo’s. She specializes in therapy for abused children. There’s a higher demand for her talents than one would wish, but I’m sure she’d come for me,” Poppy said, thinking aloud.  
“I have no better ideas,” Snape said, looking up again.  
“I’ll write to her tonight then, and I must insist on Caelie staying here, I can set up beds for the rest of you if you wish to stay here. Special circumstances and all,” Poppy said, getting up once more.  
Snape nodded and looked at Caelie and the unlikely trio of boys around her.   
She had powerful friends, if only she knew how powerful.


	7. Chapter 7

Caelie woke to murmurings of at least two people. To say she was disoriented was an understatement. She had no idea where she was, everything was black, but she was lying on something soft, so she had been found. She couldn’t identify who was speaking, nor the language they were doing it in. She struggled to get their attention, but quickly remembered her uncles Rules. She mustn’t be heard.   
After listening a while she was able to identify one of the voices. Snape. He’d know. He’d know that she had ignored him. He was going to be so mad. She retracted on herself.  
The movement must have caught their attention because the speaking stopped.  
“Child, are you with us?” Snape asked, gently.  
He had no reason to be gentle towards her, she had disobeyed him. She did not deserve his kindness.  
“Little One, can you open your eyes?” a second voice said, Little One was Draco’s name for her.   
Could her luck get any worse? She must look so weak in Draco’s eyes, she never wanted to disappoint Draco, he was the first friend she ever made.   
Hold on, open her eyes? Weren’t her eyes already open? She did a mental check of her body, her lip felt big, and she could feel bruises on her abdomen, and yes, her eyes were closed. She tried opening them, but they felt like they were glued shut.  
Finally she managed to open one a tiny bit, but the world was too bright and she closed it quickly again.  
“The lights,” another voice said.  
“I’ve got it,” replied it’s twin.  
Fred and George too? Why were they all here? Did they all want to laugh at her disgrace?  
The red glow that shone through her eyelids, disappeared and she tried once more to open her eyes.  
The world was very blurry today. She blinked, and two anxious faces, one expectant face, and one face filled with an emotion that she could not recognize came into focus. She flinched away from the last one, which quickly schooled itself to calm. She relaxed slightly. She blinked again and recognized the platinum blonde head of Draco and the red of Fred, those were the anxious face. George looked relieved at her awakening. And Snape still wore a mask of false calmness upon his face.  
“Glad to see you’re still kicking, Little Ina,” Fred said, gently. George just nodded.  
“We’ve got to go now, though, I assume precious Peeves is missing us, and we’ve got a lot to do. There are certain people whom we’ve promised a lesson they won’t soon forget.”  
Snape ignored this last comment as they stood and left, heads bowed together, muttering darkly.  
“They’re scary when they get like that,” Draco said with a shudder.  
“I’m glad too, Little One. You gave us quite a scare. Did you know you were out for a whole day?”  
She shook her head.  
“Draco, I think it’s time for you to go now too. I need a private word with Ms. Northrop,” Snape said, still not looking away from Caelie.  
Draco nodded and left.  
“Child,” he breathed, after Draco had taken his leave, “don’t you ever scare me like that again.”  
He held Caelie close, shifting so she was on his lap as he leaned against the headboard. She burrowed herself further into his chest.  
“We, Poppy and I, are worried about you, and I don't know if I can help you, especially if you don’t come to me with your problems.”  
Caelie shifted.  
“I don’t blame you, I know it must be difficult to trust new people, but I want you to be happy,” he took a deep breath, “Poppy has called a friend and she’s going to come and ask you some questions, she might make you do things—”   
Caelie stiffened.  
“She won’t make you talk, and she won’t touch you if you don’t want it, but she might make you write things down, read, listen, we all just want to help.”  
He looked down at Caelie, “Will you agree to see her?”  
Caelie thought about it.  
*time*  
“We were hoping she’d come on the weekends.”  
*you*  
“After the first session, whether or not I’m there is completely up to you, but the first one you have to be alone.”  
*name*  
“Her name is Lacey Grey.”  
*pretty*  
“Yes, I think so too. Will you meet with her? She’s coming tomorrow to visit Poppy even if you do not wish to meet with her. I will not force you.”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Thank you, child.”  
He hugged her back to his chest and leaned back on the headboard.   
—————  
The next morning Poppy and Severus went down to Hogsmead to pick up Lacey Grey and escort her up to the Castle. They also took this time to inform her of the situation, as Poppy’s letter hadn’t gone that in depth.   
By the time they were at the Hospital Wing doors, Ms. Grey knew of the memories Snape saw, what they knew of the bullying and Caelie’s refusal to speak, the diagnostics that Poppy had run and the theories they had drawn from it.  
All in all, it wasn’t much to go on, and Ms. Northrop was waiting for her on the other side of the double doors.  
They walked in.  
“Child, come meet Ms. Grey,” Snape said when the girl had looked up to see who had entered.  
Caelie, eager to please Snape after he had forgiven her for not coming to him, jumped up and came over, staying on the side of Snape that was farthest from Ms. Grey.   
She hadn’t met the woman yet, and wasn’t sure if she could be trusted.   
Ms. Grey knelt down to her level.  
“Hello, Ms. Northrop,” she said kindly, holding out her hand.  
Caelie shrunk further behind Snape’s robes, just looking at the hand. Caelie looked up at Snape who nodded.  
Tentatively she reached for Ms. Grey’s hand, flinching slightly when they touched. They didn’t shake, or even come close, but it was enough for Ms. Grey.  
“It’s a pleasure meeting you,” she said with a smile.  
Caelie smiled shyly back.  
“Would you like to come speak with me? I have a few questions for you,” she asked, still crouching down.  
Caelie looked up at Snape, who raised an eyebrow. She clung on tighter.  
“How about you and Ms. Grey go to Poppy’s office and Poppy and I will sit on your bed?” Snape suggested.  
Caelie nodded, then led the way to Poppy’s office. She and Ms. Grey entered while Poppy and Snape went around the corner to her bed.  
Caelie made sure to seat herself where she could clearly see her Head of House and he could see her, and although Ms. Grey noticed this, she said nothing.  
Once Caelie was situated, Ms. Grey sat down too.  
“May I call you Caelie?” she asked.  
Caelie nodded.  
“Okay,” she said with a smile.   
“You can call me Lacey, or Grey, or Miss or whatever you like, I have no preference,” she leaned forwards as if she was going to tell Caelie a secret and added, “just show me what it looks like when you sign so I know you’re talking to me.”  
She sat up again.  
“Do you know of name signs?”  
Caelie shook her head.  
“Name signs are signs for people so you don’t have to keep finger spelling their name, it’s very convenient especially is someone has a long name. They are very personal and only you and the person who's name sign it is even have to know the meaning behind it. Now let’s come up with some signs for your friends. Who’s your first friend?”  
That question was easy. Draco was her first friend.  
*D-R-A-C-O*  
“Did you know Draco is the name for the dragon constellation?”  
Caelie shook her head. She hadn’t read any of the astronomy text, and the weather hadn’t cleared enough for a practical lecture.  
“I think it would be very fitting if his name sign was the sign for dragon, don’t you think?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Do you know what the sign for dragon is?”  
A small shake.  
Ms. Grey showed her and Caelie repeated it.  
“Very good, so now Draco has a sign. Do you have any other friends?”  
*F-R-E-D G-E-O-R-G-E mirror brother*  
“So Fred and George are twins?”  
Caelie nodded.  
*P-R-A-N-K*  
“They prank people, are they very silly?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“How did you meet them?”  
*help me*  
“How did they help you?”  
*P-R-O-T-E-C-T*  
“They protected you?”  
A nod.  
“Are they identical?”  
Caelie hesitated on that.  
“Do they look alike?”  
She nodded, and then shook her head putting her hand over her heart.  
“They look alike, but they are different inside?”  
Caelie nodded, satisfied with this description.  
“Would you say one thinks with his head, while the other with his heart?”  
She nodded, and she knew exactly which was which too.  
“Which one thinks with their head?”  
*G-E-O-R-G-E*  
“His sign could be the letter G tapped against your temple,” she suggested, “and Fred’s could be the letter F tapped against your heart.”  
Caelie thought about it, testing out the signs. She decided she liked them and nodded.  
“What about Snape, should we give him a sign?”  
Caelie didn’t even hesitate with this one. She nodded and signed *father*.  
“That sign is a great honour, I’m sure he’ll love it. What about Poppy?”  
She didn’t have to think too hard about that one either.   
She made the letter Y and did the sign for flower.  
“Why did you choose that sign?”  
“P-O-P-P-Y flower talk yellow”  
“Yes, a poppy is a kind of flower, but I don’t understand what you mean by talking yellow.”  
*Draco silver Fred ocean George sky Snape red Poppy yellow talk*  
“Do you mean their voices are those colours?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Interesting, you’ll have to tell me more about that later. That seems like a good name to me. What about me?”  
Caelie made the sign for help with the letter G.  
Ms. Grey repeated it.   
“Very good, I like it!” she said with a smile, “Now, you said that your friends voices have colours, does everybody have a colour?”  
She nodded.  
“Is everybody’s colour different?”  
Caelie shook her head.  
*more talk no colour*  
“There aren’t enough colours for all the voices?”  
Nod.  
“I see what you mean, so some people have the same colour?”  
Another nod.  
“Do the colours have meaning?”  
Caelie shrugged, she hadn’t thought of that before.  
“Okay, I’m going to ask you to do a few things for me now. First off, I’d like you to keep a journal. Write everything in it, and put a star next to only those things you are comfortable with sharing with either me or Snape, everything else will be private so you can feel free to write everything down. It doesn’t have to make sense, you are the only one who will see it, and you don’t even have to read it again after you write it down. Does that sound good to you?”  
Caelie nodded, she’d have two different symbols for Ms. Grey and Snape though.   
“I’d also like you to write down each persons name and colour, if you don’t remember then just leave their colour blank. Try to list everyone you know now, or once knew, like your old teacher. Can you do that?”  
*try*  
“That’s all I ask. Finally, I’d like you to list all the things you like doing, the things that make you happy. For example, I enjoy singing in the shower, it makes me ready to face the day. Even when I sing sad songs, I get the sadness out of the way so I can go help people. Do you like to read?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Put that at the top of your list. You don’t have to write out why, just think about that part for now. Sound good?”  
Caelie nodded again.  
“Wonderfull,” Ms. Grey exclaimed. She reached for her bag and pulled out many small journals.  
“Now I’d like you to choose one to keep and write everything down in. Take your time. Pick your favourite.”  
Caelie looked over the little books. Some had lines in them and some didn’t. She picked up one that had what looked like a black whirlpool on the cover and opened it up, the paper inside was lined unobtrusively, a suggestion rather than a demand. It was larger than the others, had a proper book binding and a ribbon to keep her place. She smelt the pages, like she did when picking between two of her books to read, each scent had a different story and a different feel. She would choose the book that felt best at the time. This was the journal she wanted.   
She showed it to Ms. Grey.  
“Is that the one you want?” she asked.  
Caelie nodded and hugged it to her chest.  
“Then it is yours, go show Severus. Remember what I told you to do, I believe I’ll be seeing you next week.”  
When Caelie didn’t move, she said, “Go child, I must speak with Poppy and I’m sure Severus will want to know his name sign.”  
Caelie ran towards her and gave her a quick hug, the journal still at her chest, and then ran out the door, and to Snape.   
Ms. Grey watched as Caelie showed him her journal and smiled when she saw the awed look on his face when Caelie shared her name sign for him. She suspected that if she ever brought up the sudden shine in his eyes of unshed tears at the gesture, Snape would deny it wholeheartedly.  
Poppy looked towards her, and she gestured for Poppy to join her in the office.  
“So what did you think of her?” Poppy asked as she shut the door and sat down in Caelie’s empty seat.  
“Severus is going to have his hands full. We came up with name signs today and I told her to keep a journal.”  
Lacey demonstrated and explained Poppy’s name sign to her.  
“So she can see sounds? Like synesthesia?” Poppy asked.  
“Undoubtedly.”  
“That may be why she distrusts Moody. His colour might remind her of someone else’s, though Moody’s certainly given her reason to distrust him for himself and not his voice. Did you know he showed all his classes the effects of the Unforgivable Curses in their first lesson? I’ve never had to give so many Calming Drafts in a single week, not even for NEWTS or OWLS.”  
“Is the synesthesia why Snape is going to have his hands full? Do you think it will cause problems?”  
“I don’t know if it will cause problems or not, but he’s going to have his hands full because of his own name sign. She had to put in a lot of thought for most of them, you were relatively easy, but Snape's was almost second nature to her, she’d probably been thinking of him like that for a while for it to come so naturally.”  
“What does Snape’s mean?”  
“Father” was all that Lacey said.  
Poppy gasped, then looked out the window where Snape and Caelie were singing about the journal and the names, maybe even Snape’s own name, “I guess I’m not actually that surprised. You know what he calls her. And this morning I found both of them on her bed, he was holding her and leaning against the headboard while she was sleeping on his chest. I’ve never seen either of them so content. I couldn’t bear to wake them, so I just pretended I didn’t see anything and let them wake up on their own. Snape woke up first and just sat there, stroking her hair until she too woke up. Only when she was fully awake did Snape put her down. It was touching.”  
She and Lacey smiled and continued watching the pair interact. 


	8. Chapter 8

Caelie did her best to write in her journal every day, just like Ms. Grey said. She wrote about her friends and their colours, she wrote about her classes and how she wished the teachers would understand her like Snape did. She wrote about her dreams of her mother and nightmares of her uncle. She explained, in detail, the way magic felt when it coursed through her as she practiced Charms in her bed. She wrote about the excitement she felt when the quill finally levitated like her classmates feathers the first week. She wrote about her fears of Moody, the way the colour of his voice kept changing. Nobody’s colour just changed like that. She wrote about the bullies and their torment. She catalogued everything they had ever done or said to her and put it against what Fred and George had done in retaliation and decided, that if she didn’t get the smallest bit of revenge, she would never have the upper hand and they would never stop bothering her.  
It felt good to get all the thoughts out of her head, and she knew that this wasn’t technically breaking any rules. She hadn’t made a sound, and even her uncle knew how to read and write.   
—————  
It was Tuesday night when she had made the quill levitate, she tried some of the other Charms that they were learning in class and was delighted to find that she could do those too. They were more difficult and they didn't work in quite the way they were supposed to, her Lumos shined green instead of white, but it was better than the previous attempts and she went to bed looking forward to showing Professor Flitwick that she did care in class tomorrow afternoon, but first she’d have to survive Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Moody.  
—————  
As she entered the Defense classroom, she saw with trepidation that all the desks had been moved up against the walls, leaving a clear space in the centre with Professor Moody standing in the middle of it.  
“Come on, come on, get in,” Moody barked at the students straggling in.   
“Today, we will be testing your ability to resist the Imperious Curse—”  
There were a few gasps at that.  
Dennis Creevey’s hand went up.  
“Creevey, what is it now boy?”  
“But Sir, isn’t that illegal? I thought the Improus Curse was one of the Unforgivables.”  
“The Imperious Curse is a common tool used by dark wizards to have full control over others. If you are to learn to defend yourself, as the title of this class would suggest, you must at least know what the Curse feels like, even if you are unsuccessful in resisting. Pritchard” he barked suddenly, turning to the Slytherin boy, “you first. Come to the centre of the room.”  
Graham Pritchard did so.  
“Imperio.”  
Pritchard proceeded to do the chicken dance while the Gryffindors laughed. The Slytherins looked murderous, or as murderous as eleven year olds could look, as they saw their fellow housemate humiliated in front of the Gryffindors.  
Moody lifted his wand and Pritchard stopped dancing.  
“Not quite,” Moody said with what could have been described as a grin if his face wasn’t so gnarled, “Monroe, up.”  
Marina Monroe, a Gryffindor girl, was made to cartwheel around the room.  
Dennis Creevey was made to bark like a dog.  
“Northrop, your turn,” Moody said turning to Caelie.  
She cautiously went to the centre of the room and prepared herself.   
“Imperio.”  
It was the most terrifying feeling. Caelie felt as if she were floating with nothing in her head to keep her grounded. She forgot who she was, the bits of her that made her Caelie and not the freak her uncle had called her. There was nothing left but a vague, untraceable happiness that she had never felt before in her life. She stood there, in the centre of the room trying desperately to regain herself.  
And then she heard Moody’s voice in her mind. No! He needed to get out, his voice was the wrong colour!   
Skip around the room…skip around the room…  
She didn’t want to. The voice had taken everything from her, just like her uncle and now it wanted her to skip? Why?   
Skip around the room…  
No, she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t move. She tried to get to her garden where she kept her memories, but she couldn’t find the way.   
Skip! NOW!  
NO! She sat down. She forced herself to find her garden, and once she got there, the built herself an alcove, one where no one could find her, where the voice couldn’t get to her, couldn’t make her do anything. Safe in that knowledge, she stood up again and walked calmly to her place at the side of the room, unaware of the silence that followed her. She still didn’t have all of herself back yet, but she was no longer being commanded to skip around like the insane.   
Suddenly, she had the odd sensation of having the rest of herself slammed back into her skull.   
Finally.  
She didn’t want to experience that ever again. She didn’t like being the freak that she was, but at least it was familiar, and she never wanted to lose that again.  
“Silent but deadly, are we?” growled Moody, “See that, you lot…Northrop fought, she got away, she resisted. You can see it in her eyes. Very good, Northrop, they’ll have trouble controlling you! I’ll be telling Snape of this, youngster.”  
He went through the rest of the room and then called on Caelie again.  
“Northrop, come. I want you all to watch her eyes, see the way she fights, see the exact moment when she frees herself. Imperio.”  
She left the class feeling more than a little angry at having to live through the stripping of her person once again. It had never felt this way when she let Snape into her memories. Maybe that’s because she let him and Moody forced his way in. But then again, Moody wasn’t really in her mind, he was just controlling it, she had no idea what Moody could or could not see of her mind.   
She pondered that thought as she made her way to Charms, ignoring the not so subtle shove into a wall she received from someone as they passed.   
—————  
In Charms, she successfully demonstrated her levitation charm, as well as Lumos, which shone blue this time, and Alohamora which they hadn’t covered yet but she thought would be useful to learn, and Flitwick asked her to stay behind.  
“Ms. Northrop, can you explain to me how a first year is able to successfully perform a nonverbal spell when you are incapable of even learning the spell verbally in the first place?” he asked when the last student had left.  
She felt hurt at the accusation that she couldn’t learn the spell properly, but shook her head.  
Poppy had told her that hard work and determination would be enough, and it had been. She had wanted the feather to levitate, she had repeated the incantation over and over in her head, finding the feeling of her magic within her and forcing it out, making it do her bidding. It was difficult, yes, but it wasn’t impossible. She knew that from Poppy, and now she knew it from herself.   
“Can you not answer me?” Flitwick inquired.  
She shook her head.  
*rules* she signed.  
“I do not know what you are trying to say. Know that I will be informing your head of house of your magic and your cheek. 5 points from Slytherin. You may leave.”  
Caelie left. She had never felt more indignant. She had performed the magic just as well as everybody else, sure it had been after everyone else had successfully managed it, but she had done it. Nobody else had points taken away for being successful. Prudence Quigley of Hufflepuff had been given points when she had managed to levitate her feather.   
She ran back down to the Common Room and went up to her bed. She would show them. She’d get good enough to show them all. She knew how now.   
—————  
“You know you can’t keep missing dinner,” Draco said as he climbed through the portrait hole with a napkin full of food for her. The twins had said she’d be here.  
She looked up at him and then with a smile, waved her wand and watched his shocked expression as the napkin and its contents levitated away from him and drifted slowly to her.  
“I see you don’t really need help with Charms anymore,” he said and she smiled even bigger, “and we heard all about your success in Defense when none of our class could throw off the Curse. Fairly laughed at us, told us a mere first year was more capable of simple resistance than we were. Not only were you able to resist but you did it with the same silence in which you handled everything else. I knew it was you when he said that. He seemed right pleased with you.”  
At least someone appreciated the work she put into learning and controlling her magic.  
She started eating the food that Draco brought her. She could trust him not to take it away again.   
“So now that Charms is under control, and you seem like a natural at your other classes, how is Transfiguration?” he asked.  
She shook her head darkly. She was no more able to turn the straw of hay into a needle than the sun was of rising in the West. Draco would laugh if she told him that.   
“Not so good, huh?” he said, correctly interpreting the look on her face, “that’s okay, I’m not too good at it either. Maybe I could help you while Moriarty helps me, and if you have any questions that I can’t answer we can ask him together?”  
She nodded. That sounded like a good idea. She didn’t really trust Moriarty by himself, he seemed a bit crazy, but if she was with Draco everything would be fine.  
They were going over History of Magic when Fae popped into the Common Room.  
“Master Snape is wanting to speak with Ms. Caelie, miss. I is to take you to him, miss. Master Snape is also saying that Mr. Draco is to be staying here, sir,” she said turning to Draco, who had stood up, “Master Snape is wanting to see Ms. Caelie only.”  
“Fine,” Draco said with a huff as he sat back down.  
Fae grabbed Caelie’s hand, who flinched at the sudden contact, and then popped out of the Common Room and into Snape’s office.   
It was an odd feeling, being popped out of existence in one place and into another, much like how toothpaste must feel when you squeezed it from its home inside the tube.  
Snape looked up at the sound of them arriving.  
“Thank you, Fae, you may go.”  
“Thank you, Master, miss,” Fae said bowing first to Severus and then to Caelie, then leaving with another pop.  
Snape gestured for her to sit down, and she complied.  
“I heard some very pleasing things from Professors Flitwick and Moody today, though I’m sure Professor Flitwick was less than pleased when he told me. Do you know what they said?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Before we start, know that I am immensely proud of you. There is a reason that we don’t start teaching nonverbal spells until sixth year, they are extremely difficult to grasp, even for the best of minds. For a first year to be able to do it, without having learned the verbal spell first is unheard of. It shows extreme mental control and an extreme desire on your part to learn magic. As for resisting the Imperious Curse, I’m angry that Professor Moody had the gal to perform the Curse on first years, but I’m proud that you were able to resist it. Alastor Moody is a powerful wizard, and the Curse is a difficult one to resist. You’ve had a wonderful day, child. Don’t let what Professor Flitwick said bring you down, he just doesn’t know how to deal with nonconventional students.”  
Caelie smiled. She was as unconventional as one could get.   
“I think you and I should start private lessons so that we can hone your talent even farther. Professor McGonagall tells me you’re still struggling in Transfiguration. Luckily she’s more tolerant than Professor Flitwick. You have a study period on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, correct?”  
She nodded.  
“You will meet me here on those days during your study period and on Saturday mornings, and we will go over the texts for all your classes and work on nonverbal magic. Does that sound good to you?”   
She nodded again, it sounded exciting. Finally she’d be able to learn magic. Then she thought of Draco, he had trouble in Transfiguration too.  
*Draco* she signed.  
“What of Draco?” Snape asked.  
*Draco come*  
“Draco has a study period same as you on Wednesdays, if he wishes, he can join us then, but Tuesdays and Saturdays are to be private.”  
She agreed to that, it was fair enough.  
“Very good, now go on back to the Common Room, I’m sure Draco is dying to know what we’ve been talking about.”


	9. Chapter 9

On the first of October, Dumbledore announced that in a few weeks, the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would arrive and excitement swept through the castle at the idea of newcomers.   
“Well if it isn’t Miss Silent and Deadly?” Caelie heard someone call out behind her. She and Draco turned to see the “Golden Trio” as they’d been affectionately dubbed walk towards them.  
“What? Isn’t that what Moody called you? And here we thought you were just too dumb to do anything useful. Too slimy to go to Hufflepuff? That’s where you belong, isn’t it? No muggleborn ever got sorted into Slytherin before. Who’d you mum sleep with to make you? It certainly wasn’t the man you call ‘Dad!’” the redhead in the group said as they got closer.  
“Ron! That’s enough!” the boy Draco had warned her about said.  
“Ron, blood heritage doesn’t matter to the sorting hat, you know that,” their bushy haired companion said.  
Draco, who knew about Caelie’s parents, or lack thereof, shot back, “Like you’d know anything, Weasley. Your dad was in the paper last week, didn’t even get his name right, but then again, who’d care about blood traitors? It’s almost as if you lot are a complete nonentity, isn’t it? And there was a picture of them in front of your pigsty of a house. Your mums a bit porky, could do with loosing a few stones, or is she knocked up again? If it wasn’t for your dreadful hair, I’d say it was the milkmans, because who would want to touch a woman like that?” Sorry Fred, George.  
“Don’t you dare insult my mother, Malfoy,” Weasley hissed.  
“Keep your fat mouth shut then and don’t go insulting other’s then,” Draco hissed right back.  
Fred and George had come up behind Caelie to see what the noise was. They stood at her back on hand on each of her shoulders as they glared at Ron, making no comment on Draco’s insults. They knew it had come out as an act of habit, Draco wasn’t like that, and Ron had been asking for it.   
“Come on, Ron, it’s not worth it, she’s never done or said anything to you” the black haired boy said.  
“She hasn’t said anything to anyone, who does she think she is, lording around? Too good to talk to us common folk?” Weasley raged.  
“Ron, let’s go, please, let’s go” the girl begged.  
Ron turned around just as Draco pulled his wand out, he raised it. There was a loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.  
“OH NO YOU DON’T, LADDIE!”  
The trio spun around again. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.   
Caelie drew her own wand, hidden in her sleeve and remembered what Professor McGonagall had said about transfiguration. You had to really want it.   
Imagine Draco the boy again, she thought.  
She pointed her wand, still hidden in her sleeve at Draco and willed him back into human form. It seemed to take ages, but in reality it was only mere seconds, and Draco was back on his feet, Moody shouting something about attacking when one’s back was turned when he realised that Draco was standing in front of him, completely human. Moody looked around and saw Caelie with her wand hidden in her sleeve. He’d have to keep a closer watch on the girl. She was keeping secrets.  
“Professor Moody!” said a shocked voice.   
Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.  
“Hello, Professor McGonagall,” said Moody calmly, still watching Caelie with his magical eye.  
“Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!” she said angrily, “Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?”  
“He might’ve mentioned it, yeah,” said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, still looking at Caelie.  
“And you,” McGonagall said turning to Caelie, Fred and George, “You three come with me, I need to ask you some questions about exactly what happened here.”  
Caelie knew she meant about who turned Draco back from the white ferret.  
“Malfoy, you come too. I need to check to make sure nothing got damaged in the transformation.”  
Draco blushed, but followed without argument, ignoring the Weasley boy’s mutters behind his back.  
“I don’t think you need much help in Transfiguration, Little One,” he whispered to Caelie behind McGonagall’s back.  
She giggled silently.  
“In,” McGonagall snapped as they reached her office.   
The four of them entered, McGonagall behind them.  
“Sit,” she ordered and went around to the fireplace, drawing a pinch of powder that she threw onto the flames and made them turn green.  
“Severus!” she called, “I need you in my office.”  
A moment later Snape came stepping through the fire.  
“Yes, Minerva? I suppose you have a reason for summoning me on my brewing day?”  
“Of course, Severus, I have two of your Snakes here, Professor Moody turned Mr. Malfoy into a ferret, of course he was turned back almost instantly by one of these three, I just haven’t fount out which one it was. I also have yet to check to make sure Malfoy’s transformation did no harm, physically.”  
“Of course, mentally we’ll never know,” Fred said.  
“It’s not like we’d notice a difference if he was,” George added.  
“Oh, shush,” Draco snapped, “we already know that the rest of us are completely sane compared to you two.”  
McGonagall looked shocked at the interaction between the boys, as well as Caelie’s silent egging.  
Snape, of course, was not shocked at all and just waited for the boys to quiet down.  
When they finally did, McGonagall ran a quick specific diagnostics test on Malfoy and determined that nothing had gone wrong, then turned back to the twins and Caelie.  
“So which one of you transfigured him back?” she asked.  
The twins pointed at each other, but when they saw the other they gaped and looked down at Caelie who was still holding her wand and looking at her knees.   
“It most certainly wasn’t Ms. Northrop. She hasn’t been able to transfigure anything in class. She refuses to speak,” McGonagall said with annoyance.  
Now it was Snape’s turn to be annoyed, “That’s only because you refuse to teach her. She can communicate just as well as any other student, you just need to take the time to get to understand her. I’ll have you know that she has mastered nonverbal spells in Charms already, and has successfully thrown off the Imperius Curse. She even has highly developed Occlumency shields and she did that all on her own. I hadn’t gotten around to teaching her that yet, but I tested her after the twins here found her in that corridor.”  
“That does not mean—” McGonagall started.  
“She knows the theories all by heart,” Draco added, “Moriarty was testing her on it while helping me, but she already knew it. So he started teaching her more advanced stuff, only in theory though. He knows how dangerous Transfiguration can be.”  
“She’s bloody powerful,” Fred said smiling down at her.  
“And brilliant,” George added.  
“Language,” McGonagall admonished.  
“Maybe even better than Hermione,” Fred said, turning to his twin and pretending he hadn’t heard his Head of House.  
“Don’t let her hear you say that,” George and Draco said at the same time.  
“Hey! That’s my job!” Fred protested as the other two high-fived.  
“Fine,” he turned back to Caelie, “I guess its just you and me now, Little Ina.”  
She took his hand and shrugged. Fred pulled her into his lap where she settled, sticking her tongue out at Draco.  
“Enough!” Snape said.   
The boys instantly settled down, Caelie stayed in Fred’s lap. Snape ignored that. He figured she needed the extra strength the action provided.   
“Do you mean to say,” McGonagall said slowly, “that a first year, who has never spoken a word in class, has never successfully transfigured even the smallest inanimate object was able to preform a nonverbal transformation on a human, without the slightest bit of damage, on her first try, just because she has the theory memorized?”  
“Well, I don’t know if its because she has the theory memorized—“  
“—But that just about sums it up, yeah.” Fred and George agreed.  
“How about,” Snape started to suggest before McGonagall or the twins could say anything more, “we have Caelie, here, try to transfigure something small. Hay into needles is what you normally do for first years isn’t it? We can work our way up from there and test to see if she really is capable of doing it. To be honest, I have no doubt that she it, but I would like to see it for  myself.”  
He smiled at Caelie and gave her a small wink.  
She raised her wand and silently Summoned they hay they had used in lessons, Draco had taught her the Summoning spell as he was practicing it in the Common Room and she had practiced it in bed, like she had done with her other spells.   
McGonagall was shocked when she saw a straw of hay flying through the air towards the girl, whose wand was still raised.  
The lass hadn’t made a sound, Severus and Filius were right. It’s unbelievable. And that’s a fourth year spell.  
Caelie, unaware of the awe she had forced on McGonagall placed the hay on the desk in front of her and pointed her wand at it, concentrating hard. She tried to replicate the feeling she had had when turning Draco back, but instead imagining the hay turning into the perfect needle.  
A quiet gasp alerted her, and looking down she saw a needle sitting where the hay had been. She looked up to see Snape looking at her, eyes shining with pride. She had done it! She could do magic!  
“Well, I’ll be, I never would have expected it out of you, lass,” McGonagall said quietly, she quickly schooled her features back to from the awed expression they had been supporting.  
“Let’s try something more difficult, shall we? Can you turn this goblet into a mouse?” she asked, putting a small crystal goblet on the desk next to the needle.  
Caelie repeated the process of concentration and imagining. The most perfect, little white mouse appeared where the goblet had been.  
“Now turn it back,” McGonagall instructed, not unkindly.  
Caelie did as she was told.  
“I wouldn’t have believed it before, but I’ll believe it now. Do you know how you changed Malfoy back?” she asked.  
Caelie shook her head.  
*Draco mind mirror*  
McGonagall looked at Snape.  
“I figure that’s what you mean by her way of communicating, Severus?” she asked.  
“It is,” he replied, then translated, “so you saw Draco in your mind?”  
Caelie nodded.  
*think hard Draco mind mirror rat*  
“You concentrated hard on the image of Draco in your mind and, I’m assuming, willed him back into his original form rather than that of a rodent?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“I’m pretty sure Draco here, was a ferret,” Fred supplied.  
“And a fine one at that,” George said, winking at the now blushing Draco.  
“It really doesn’t matter what form of rodent Draco turned into,” Snape said.  
“Hey!” Draco cried indignantly, “It does too matter, if you say rodent I could be anything from a rat to a porcupine. At least ferrets are known for being intelligent.”  
“Can we get back to the conversation at hand?” McGonagall asked, “I still don’t understand how you were able to do it all without speaking.”  
Snape answered for Caelie this time.  
“Out of necessity, she has taught herself how to perform magic without sound. Pomfrey says she is physically able to speak, but until she proves herself, we must act as if she isn’t, not that it’s any hardship. The only reason we hold off on teaching students nonverbal spells is because they need the time to grow accustomed to magic and how that particular spell feels when they cast it. Caelie has never known this. I assume she draws on the feeling of her accidental magic, and concentrates on what she wants to happen, using her wand as a focus.”  
Caelie nodded, that sounded about right to her.  
“I have already arranged for her to have private lessons with me, that will cover the whole of this years text so that she may become proficient in using the spells nonverbally, as well as coaching her through using her standard magic so as not to tire herself unnecessarily,” Snape continued.  
“Very well, 20 points to Slytherin for outstanding academical achievement for Ms. Northrop, and another 15 for Ms. Northrop's ingenuity,” McGonagall said, and then dismissed them.  
Once outside her office, Fred and George separated from the rest to head up to Gryffindor tower while the other three headed down to the dungeons and the Slytherin common room.


	10. Chapter 10

The following weekend saw Caelie in Snape’s office, early in the morning. They would be covering all of her class courses, moving onto those covered in second year if she managed to learn all of those from this year.   
Pulling out his copy the Standard Book of Spells Grade 1, Snape opened it to the first chapter, he waved his wand and Caelie watched as a list of all the spells listed within the book started compiling itself on a piece of parchment Snape had provided.  
“I assume you’ve read the entire book already?” Snape asked, knowing it was something Caelie would do. He knew she was desperate to learn magic, and until recently, reading about them was the only way she would know about any of the spells.  
She nodded.  
“I believe the best course of action would be for you to demonstrate the spells you do know, and any other magics that you’ve become proficient in, even if it is accidental, and then we can start crossing things off this list,” Snape looked at the list so far, it had finished the Standard Book of Spells, he repeated the process with the Transfiguration text, followed by the Charms and Defense text.  
Once the list was complete, he turned to Caelie, who was looking a bit nervous.  
“Child, right now, you can do nothing wrong. There are no grades, no good or bad. All I ask is that you try. Now, we know you can do the Levitation Charm. Can you demonstrate that for me?” he asked, gesturing to a pillow he had brought for the occasion.  
She nodded and did so.  
“Very good, now this time, when you concentrate on the feeling of the magic, don’t force it to bend to your will, accidental magic you have to force, your own magical core should provide you with the power to levitate the cushion without such force.”  
Caelie tried again, doing what Snape had told her, she watched her magic, felt it, but didn’t force it. She saw the pillow levitate. It was much easier than before, when she had to fight with her magic to make it do what she wanted, now it aided her without argument.  
“Much better. We can cross that one off the list. Would you like to do the honours?” he asked, handing quill and parchment over to her.  
It was very satisfying, being able to cross something of the long list.  
“We know you can transfigure a straw of hay into a needle, but can you try again, doing the same thing you did with you magic as you did last time.”  
It was a cinch and Caelie got to cross another thing off the list.  
They continued like that until they had covered everything they both knew she knew.  
“Is there anything else that you can do, that might have only been controlled accidental magic?”  
She nodded thinking of the magic she used to hide her bruises from adults who wanted to help but only made things worse. She put down her wand, she didn’t need it for this, she was afraid of the power it might add when she did the magic. Snape looked confused at this, but just let her do what she needed.   
Caelie closed her eyes and imagined subtly changing her appearance so that she wouldn’t look like Caelie but she wouldn’t look like anybody else either.  
Her nose appeared became straighter, thinner, the tone of her skin darkened slightly with freckles across her nose and cheeks, when she opened her eyes, Snape could see they’d changed from ice blue to warm hazel. She looked like a Weasley.  
She then concentrated on removing the images she’d created from her person and opening her eyes once more, Snape saw she was completely back to normal.  
“What did you use that for?” Snape said, shocked, Caelie could do a nonverbal wandless glamour charm. There were only a few wizards that he knew of who could do wandless magic, but they were all a lot older and better trained than Caelie. He wouldn’t tell her this of course, she didn’t need to know that once again, she was different from her peers.  
*hiding face*  
“Why did you want to hide your face?”  
*uncle hurt face people*  
“Did you have bruises and cuts on your face, and you wanted to hide it from other people?”  
Caelie nodded.  
The more she said, or didn’t say, the more he hated her uncle. She didn’t seem to mind though, and that worried him slightly.  
“That is called a Glamour Charm, and you preformed it very well,” he praised and she smiled, “is there anything else?”  
*one me think*  
“Let’s see this last one then,” Snape prompted.  
Caelie didn’t pick up her wand, but left it there at the table and started concentrating on the magic she’d done to hide from her uncle so he wouldn’t notice her.   
Snape saw that he couldn’t look at her, he knew she was there, but his eyes refused to see her. More wandless magic, but this time it was a powerful, a very powerful, notice-me-not charm. Would she never stop surprising him? He hoped not.  
He was able to look at Caelie once more.  
“That is called, for lack of a better name, a Notice-Me-Not Charm, I don’t believe we teach it at Hogwarts, but it is key study for anyone who wants to become an Auror,” seeing the confused look on Caelie’s face he added, “Aurors are like the police force of the wizarding world.”  
She nodded.  
“Well, that was very good work Child,” he praised.  
He looked at the top of the list.  
“Let’s start with the Softening Charm,” he said, and they began.  
By lunch time, they had crossed the Softening Charm, and three more things off the list. Caelie looked very pleased.  
“You’ve done excellently today, Child. How about, I summon Fae and we have lunch here and then you go tell Draco what you’ve learned, does that sound good to you?”  
Caelie nodded and they both sat down. Snape summoned Fae and had her bring sandwiches and soup for the pair of them.   
“You’re seeing Ms. Grey tonight aren't you?” Snape asked.  
Caelie nodded.  
“Have you been doing what she asked?”  
Another nod.  
“Are you ready?”  
Caelie shook her head.  
*hurt afraid*  
“You know Ms. Grey would never hurt you. Why are you frightened she’ll hurt you?”  
Caelie just shook her head, sadly.  
Snape stood up and pulled Caelie into a hug, picked her up and then sat down again with her in his lap, she burrowed her face into his chest and he kissed the top of her head before smoothing her hair and asking again, “Why are you frightened?”  
*writing book story me*  
“Yes, the journal is a bit personal isn’t it? And you’ve been writing a lot, or so Draco tells me. But didn’t Ms. Grey tell you that she’d only read the things you’re comfortable with sharing? That you put special symbols by only those things?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“You can always change your mind, and cross out some of the symbols if you don’t want her reading something.”  
Caelie didn’t sign anything but pushed her face back into his chest and breathed deeply. Snape could feel every single tight muscle in her tiny body relax and he hugged her closer to him.   
They both needed this right now. The silent comfort of knowing someone cared.


	11. Chapter 11

Caelie and Ms. Grey were sat in Poppy’s office again, with both Severus and Poppy outside on the bed that Caelie secretly referred to as hers.   
Caelie pulled out her journal and kept it on her lap while everyone else got situated.  
“Are you ready Caelie?” Ms. Grey asked.  
Caelie nodded and handed Ms. Grey her notebook.  
The first page was the colours of the students voices, the next was the list of things she liked to do, which consisted only of reading and art.  
Then came the actual journal entries.   
—————  
This journal is for me to keep my thoughts straight and so that communications between me, and the rest of my friends will be easier.   
—————  
I never expected this to work. Getting everything out of my system is draining, but now it’s not floating in my head anymore and I feel better.  
—————  
I never knew my dad, but my mum always made time for me. She used to braid my hair and we’d make chocolate chip cookies together. She told me that I would be her princess. Sometimes she had bad days, she never really knew when to stop. Staying up late used to be fun, but then I got too tired for school and my teachers started sending notes home. I don’t know if my mother ever read them. Sometimes she would make dozens and dozens of cookies, but she wouldn’t stop. There would be drying racks all over our flat and we’d be out of flour and she’d only stop out of necessity. She never hurt me. She only loved me too much. I used to complain that she wouldn’t let me be my own person, or that she was too protective of me. I regret that now.  
—————  
At my old school we learned all about animal families, how nature adapts and the animals that survive are strong in ways the other animals are not. We read about sharks and lizards and how they don’t take care of their babies after they’re born. The babies come out and have to take care of themselves or they die.  
—————  
I had a dream about the fire. I never told anyone about the fire. I told the nurse that my mum had woken me. She didn’t. I was trying to get her to stop…and she wouldn’t…something fell over and there was so much smoke. I tried to get my mum to get out of the house. My feet were in so much pain but I refused to look at them. She didn’t move. I remember crying for my mum. She didn’t want to leave. She didn’t want to remember and sometimes I understand that. Change is hard, and it hurts and sometimes, not all of you makes it. And you just have to survive without the pieces that got lost or broken or left behind.  
—————  
At my old school we had this meeting after an older student committed suicide. They told us to talk to them if anything was troubling us. I had rules then and I wouldn’t speak to them. I wasn’t troubled either, but I don’t think they knew that some of us had rules and we couldn’t “just speak up.” I thought about suicide. Usually just a passing thought. It started as a thought of what it was and what it meant to die. Then I started to wish I would die. But that would make him angry and he didn’t want to be alone anymore. Maybe he’d end up killing me. It felt that way often enough. But sometimes I took things further and wondered how I would do it. I would go to sleep and wonder if there was anything in the house I could use, anything he wouldn’t notice if it disappeared. We didn’t own a gun and there was no way I’d be able to get one. I wouldn’t hang myself. He’d do things with my body if I left like that. I’d have to hide away to do it so he couldn’t find me. It became a sort of game, thinking of different ways I could do it. I could make it look like an accident, where someone would find me and my body wouldn’t be taken again by him. I stopped thinking about this when Severus came. I can call him Severus in here because this is something I cannot bear to show him. He believes I have strength. I’ve never had that before. I don’t want to show him that he’s wrong. I’ve never been strong, just too afraid of what might happen to decide what will happen.  
—————  
I have rules:  
Mustn’t speak, mustn’t be heard.  
Only he is allowed to touch.  
Only take what is given.  
What is given can be taken away just as easily.  
Earn your keep.  
No freakish languages.  
No freakishness (but now we call it magic, and I cannot do it around him only).  
Severus dislikes these rules. He wants me to talk to him, I can tell it. He gives me food and he’s never taken it away and he doesn’t expect me to earn my keep.  
—————  
The boys won’t leave me alone, but the scarred one, the one Draco warned me about, he doesn’t bother me. His name is Harry Potter. He ignores me, I’m beneath him and he knows it. I’m beneath Draco too, but he either doesn’t know it or doesn’t care. His friend, the one with red hair is mean. He has friends that Potter doesn’t know. Friends that help him with hurting me. They must have spoken to Him. They know his words, his ways, his mind. They do not know me.  
—————  
He came back to me in my dreams again, but this time he wasn’t a fox and it wasn’t raining blood. Instead he came as the monster with bitter breath and the sharp club. It was a memory, I think. He fell but I didn’t help him. The ground swallowed him, but that couldn't be a memory because he came back, the monster came back.   
Severus saved me from him though. Severus is not like him. He isn’t like my mum either. I love Severus, he is kind. I like to think he loves me as his child. He calls me child all the time. I don’t mind, not from him. He never called me child. Severus doesn’t love me like mum loved me either. Not too much. He knows when everything is too much, he helps me get it out when it gets to be too much. He must know that from potions.  
—————  
Today Severus told the Slytherins “A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.” I think he stole that from Einstein. I was thinking about that though. Often we feel powerless. Like tiny cogs in a machine. But we can acquire power by challenging the things we doubt or know to be untrue. Each intelligent question helps and strengthens the individual. It humanizes the machine one cog at a time. But I have rules.  
—————  
I keep having dreams that start as memories but then they turn into other things and it hurts.  
—————  
As Ms. Grey read, she was shocked to find how mature Caelie’s writing seemed in some places and how utterly childlike they seemed in others. She had written much more than the small amount she was allowed to read, but she didn’t mind. This was very personal. She only hoped that Caelie would open up with her so that she could help.  
Caelie was nervous with Ms. Grey reading her journal. Those were her thoughts and she had never shared those with another being.   
What if Ms. Grey saw that she really was a freak and didn’t want to help any more? What if he was right?  
“Thank you for sharing these with me Caelie, that was a very brave thing to do,” Ms. Grey said finally.  
Caelie just shifted in her seat not looking at her.  
“For this week, I want to try something different. You mentioned you like art? Do you like to paint? Wonderful!” she said when Caelie shook her head.  
She conjured an easel, a canvas, brushes of all different shapes and sizes and paints in every colour imaginable.  
“I’m going to call in your friends one at a time and have them talk. I want you to paint their voices, let us see what they look like.”  
Caelie thought this was a silly idea, but her fingers itched to pick up a brush so she nodded along anyway. It had been so long since she had painted, since before her mum got bad.   
“First we’ll have you do me so you have an idea what it’ll be like. I’ve never had my voice painted before.”  
Ms. Grey started talking about nothing in particular and Caelie let her voice swirl around her.  
She closed her eyes, just watching it move about her for a moment before trying to capture it on canvas. She didn’t look at what she was doing, but just let herself feel. Finally she looked at her piece. It was perfect. The swirls of bright orange blending in with the yellow seamlessly, in a bright but comforting way, like sunlight through an old, warped window.  
“It’s beautiful,” Ms. Grey said from behind her.   
Caelie jumped, she hadn’t realised Ms. Grey had moved.   
Ms. Grey took the canvas, dried it with magic, and wrote her name on the back lightly in pencil.   
“Would you like to sign it?” she asked.  
Caelie shook her head. She didn’t need to, it wasn’t something that people signed. It was just a voice.  
“Who next?” Ms. Grey asked.  
Caelie looked out the window to see that Draco and the twins had come in at some point and had joined Severus and Poppy on the bed.   
*Poppy*  
“I’ll go call her, would you like me to be in here while you paint, or would you like to be alone?”  
*me*  
“I’ll go get her and then stay outside then,”  
Soon, Poppy entered.  
“Lacey said I was to talk, just talk about anything.”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Well that doesn’t give me much to go on,” she complained, “what if I read aloud instead. You could choose the book, I have plenty right here.”  
Caelie picked out a book of fables and Poppy started reading.  
Poppy’s voice painting looked like a field of wheat in warm sun. Poppy was very pleased with her painting and asked if she could make a copy of it.   
Caelie didn’t care, it was Poppy’s voice after all.  
“Who next?” she asked.  
*No Severus*   
Caelie wanted to do Severus last.  
“I’ll get one of the twins then,” Poppy agreed.  
George entered.  
*Hello George*  
“I’m not George, I’m Fred!” he cried.  
Caelie shook her head and signed *George sky Fred ocean you sky you George*.  
“I hate that you can do that, you know? Not even our mother can tell us apart, but you can, just by listening to our voices. Love it and hate it. We’ll never be able to get away with anything—”  
Caelie started painting.   
George was constant, like the sky, he sometimes had clouds that dampened his mood, but he was still George underneath. Today his voice was clear and bright. His voice painting looked like the gradient of the horizon without a single mar.   
George left and called Draco, just to annoy Fred a little farther.  
Draco came in and, after a brief greeting, started talking about transfiguration and how much Moriarty was helping.  
Draco’s picture was patterned like scales in all shades of grey with lots of silver details. Draco thought it suited him.  
Fred came next and he talked about all the pranks he and George were planning to pull on Ravenclaw.  
“And they’ll fall for it too, because they’re so damn curious. Gryffindors would open a box because they believe themselves greater than what it contains, Hufflepuffs would trust you and open the box because they have no reason not to, Ravenclaws would open a box just to know the contents. I doubt the Slytherins would open a box until they checked it thoroughly for jinxes hexes or curses, and they’d still want to know what was in it before even touching it. The only difference is that if you told Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw that the box was dangerous, Gryffindor would check to see what was in it before opening it and Hufflepuff would leave the box alone, but Ravenclaw would still open the box because they need to know what is inside of it, what makes it dangerous, how it got in the box in the first place, who put it there. It’s real convenient when you’re trying to prank them. They fall for the fun stuff.”  
Fred’s voice paining looked like waves crashing on themselves, fighting for prominence, rolling along, swelling then crashing, but never intending to harm. The sea foam green flecked with white ensured that. Had it been darker, the scene would look like a storm. Only once had Caelie seen her friends voice look like that, when he spoke of his brother after the ferret ordeal, and she never wanted to experience that again.  
Finally it was Severus’s turn.   
She was nervous to paint his, afraid that she wouldn’t do it justice.   
Snapes voice was like the finest silk, smooth beyond belief with pockets of shadows and flickers of light. Sometimes it deepened to velvet when he was talking to or of someone whom he cared about. Other times it snapped like a sail and became blindingly one solid colour, but that only happened when someone in class hadn’t paid attention to the warnings and had almost done harm to themselves or the others in the class. It was his protective voice.  
His voice was velvet when he spoke to her, when he held her while she was crying. It was velvet now and she wasn’t sure how to paint that, but she tried.  
The painting turned out wonderfully, it didn’t depict how his voice made her feel warm and protected, but she had captured the smoothness of it in the richest, deepest red she could find.   
He’ll probably hate it because it’s such a Gryffindor colour she thought suddenly, wishing she had lied and painted him green, but green just wasn’t him.   
Green was cold, cunning and sly. Green was someone who lied and schemed. Severus was warm, intelligent and blunt. He told the truth even if it hurt.  
She showed it to him, and he paled, his eyes sparkled more than usual and when he spoke there was a gruffness in his voice.  
“It’s beautiful, Child, thank you.”  
Severus was shocked when he saw the painting. He had heard everyone else’s praise of her work and how accurate it seemed. It wasn’t something one thought about, but after having the child show them, they realised exactly how accurate it was. They were all touched at the significance of each individual painting.   
But this one, this one was how she saw him, and he felt he did not deserve it. He was not worthy of all the care she placed in him. He was nearly undone every time she used the sign for father in lieu of his name, every time she looked at him with such complete trust, and now this. How on earth could she see him like this?   
He blinked away tears that were threatening to fall and thanked the child, his voice a little gruffer than he would have liked.   
She flung herself into his arms and gave him a hug. He buried his face in her hair and breathed deeply, allowing the tears to fall as he let go and allowed himself to admit that he loved the child and would do everything within his power to protect her.   
Caelie felt his promise and hugged him tighter.   
When they both had control over themselves, Severus made to let her go and to go get Ms. Grey, but Caelie didn't let go.  
Severus pulled her properly into his lap and gestured to Ms. Grey out the window.   
Caelie finished her meeting with Ms. Grey on Severus’s lap and Ms. Grey, remembering what she had read in Caelie’s journal, said nothing of it.


	12. Chapter 12

The next week, when Draco and Caelie were coming up from the dungeons to the Great Hall for breakfast, they found themselves unable to proceed owing to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. Fred and George met them in the crowd, and being both tall and rambunctious, they could clear enough space in order to see the sign and read aloud to the other two.  
TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT  
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o’clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end Half an Hour Early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.  
Caelie had forgotten that the Triwizard Tournament was happening. She looked to Draco, who looked down at her and the gestured for her to proceed him into the Great Hall.   
They had breakfast to eat.   
The twins joined them at the table.  
“My father wanted me to go to Durmstrang, but my mother didn’t want me to be so far away,” Draco said suddenly.   
“I wonder what they’ll be like, everyone says Durmstrang focuses a lot on the Dark Arts—” Fred said.  
“but everyone also said that Slytherin was full of slimy gits—” George continued.  
“so I guess that ‘everyone’ person was wrong—”   
“I don’t think I’ll be trusting them again any time soon.”  
“They’ll be arriving this Friday—”  
“We can see for ourselves.”  
Draco smiled at that. They knew what had been troubling him and as usual they just showed him how much he was overthinking things without drawing attention to it.   
“Are you two going to put your names in?” he asked the twins.  
“Can’t—” George said, downheartedly.  
“We don’t turn 17 until April—” Fred explained.  
“Though I suppose—” George started  
“It would only take a few drops—”  
“Would you care to explain what you two seem to be communicating without actual words? You’d think, with everything they say, something would actually be said, but no. They have to go and be all mysterious about everything,” Draco ranted, lightheartedly.  
“An aging potion!” they said at the same time, as if it was obvious.  
Caelie shook her head.  
*No please safe friends*  
“I think Caelie’s trying to tell you not to enter because you’re her friends and she doesn’t want you to die,” Draco told the twins. He’d been learning sign language with Snape and Caelie whenever they had a free moment together.   
“Isn’t that sweet,” Fred said, ruffling her hair.  
“Little Ina doesn’t want us risking our necks,” George said patting her back.  
“More like she wants all the bits attached and fully functioning. It might be too late now though, seems your brains are long gone,” Draco teased.  
“We’d love to listen to you, Little Ina—”  
“But a thousand galleons—”  
“Can you imagine how much that would help—”  
“We want to open up a joke shop and a thousand galleons—”  
“Plus the fame of winning—”  
“Would be a perfect way to start!”  
Caelie couldn’t argue with that, she would only hope that their names didn’t get called.   
—————  
The appearance of the sign in the entrance hall had marked effect upon the inhabitants of the castle. During the following week, there seemed to be only one topic of conversation, no matter where Caelie went: the Triwizard Tournament. Rumors were flying from student to student like highly contagious germs: Who was going to try for Hogwarts champion, what the tournament would involve, how the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang different from themselves.  
Caelie noticed too that the castle seemed to be undergoing an extra-thorough cleaning. Several grimy portraits had been scrubbed, much to the displeasure of their subjects, who sat huddled in their frames muttering darkly and wincing as they felt their raw pink faces. The suits of armor were suddenly cleaning and moving with squeaking, and Argus Filch, the caretaker, was behaving so ferociously to any students who forgot to wipe their shoes that he terrified a pair of first-year girls into hysterics.   
—————  
When they came up to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers’ table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger and snake united around a large letter H.   
Fred and George sat down beside Draco and Caelie at the Slytherin table, much to the annoyance of Ron at the Gryffindor table. they were conversing in low voices.  
“It’s a bummer, all right,” George was saying gloomily to Fred. “But if he won’t talk to us in person, we’ll have to send him the letter after all. Or we’ll stuff it into his hand. He can’t avoid us forever.”  
“Who’s avoiding you?” Draco asked.  
“Oh, just some student who swore he’d be able to get us certain supplies. He hasn’t coughed up yet though,” Fred said.   
It wasn’t exactly the truth, but if they explained Bagman to Draco, things might get out of hand. Especially if Draco mentioned it to his father.  
“You two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?” Draco asked. “Thought any more about trying to enter?”  
“I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn’t telling,” said George bitterly. “She just told me to shut up and get on with transfiguring my raccoon.”  
“I bet Potter wants to try to enter. He’s always up for dangerous stuff. Can’t keep away from it.” Draco said scathingly.  
“Actually, we heard him tell Hermione he’s looking forward to a quiet year with the attention of the school on someone else. He doesn’t actually like the whole ‘boy-who-lived’ gig,” said Fred.  
“You’d know that too if you got over yourself about that handshake. It was four years ago. Make peace,” said George.   
“And get him away from our brother,” Fred added darkly, “Harry’s too good for him.”  
—————  
There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air that day. Nobody was very attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. It annoyed Caelie to no end. She wanted to learn and the children surrounding her wouldn’t shut up long enough for her to hear the lessons her teachers were giving. By the time the reached her last class, Herbology, she was so over the behaviors of her classmates, that they had started teasing her for it.   
When the bell rang early, Draco came to collect her from the greenhouses and they went to the Slytherin Dungeons together, deposited their bags and books, as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back upstairs into the entrance hall.  
The Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines.   
Snape held the respect of the entire Slytherin house, nobody questioned his orders. “Crabbe, straighten your tie. Goyle, you have food stains all down your front, scourgify, do try to be less common when you eat. Let’s go. First years, up front, Seventh years, in back, I trust you’ll behave yourselves. Lines should not be too difficult to achieve.”   
Snape led them down the steps and they lined up in front of the castle. Snape stood next to Caelie at the end of the line. He could watch her there and make sure no one attacked her from behind.   
It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent-looking mood was already shining over the Forbidden Forest.   
There was excited muttering everywhere, but from the Slytherin lines, as the time approached 6 o’clock.   
And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood—  
“Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!”  
“Where?” said many students eagerly, all looking in different directions.  
“There!” yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.  
Something large, much larger than a broomstick — or, indeed, a hundred broomsticks — was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.   
“It’s a dragon!” shrieked on of the first years, loosing her head entirely.  
Caelie rolled her eyes at this. How anyone could be that gullible was beyond her understanding.  
The gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the lights shining from the castle windows hit is, they saw a gigantic, powder-blue, horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house, soaring towards them, pulled through the air by a dozen weed courses, all palominos, and each the size of an elephant.  
It landed, and the students exited, lead by their giantess of a Headmistress. A few people gasped.  
After speaking briefly with Dumbledore, the Headmistress, Madame Maxime, led her students into the castle to, presumably, warm up. The Hogwarts students remained outside, still waiting for Durmstrang.  
They stood, shivering slightly now, waiting for the Durmstrang party to arrive. Most people were gazing hopefully up at the sky.  
Suddenly, there was a loud and oddly eerie noise drifting toward them from out of the darkness: a muffled rumbling and sucking sound, as though an  immense vacuum cleaner were moving along a riverbed…  
“The lake!” yelled Lee Jordan, pointing down at it. “Look at the lake!”  
From their position at the top of the lawns overlooking the grounds, they had a clear view of the smooth black surface of the water — except that the surface was suddenly not smooth at all. Some disturbance was taking place deep in the centre; great bubbles were forming on the surface, waves were now washing over the muddy banks — and then, our in the very middle of the lake, a whirlpool appeared, as if a giant plug had just been pulled out of the lake’s floor.   
Slowly, magnificently, a great ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight. It had a strangely skeletal look about it, as though it were a resurrected wreck, and the dim, mostly lights shimmering at its portholes looked like ghostly eyes. Finally, with a great sloshing noice, the ship emerged entirely, bobbing on the turbulent water, and began to line toward the bank. A few moments later, they heard the smash of an anchor being shown down in the hallows, and the thud of a plank being lowered onto the bank.  
People were disembarking; they could see their silhouettes passing the lights in the ship’s portholes, lead by their Headmaster, whom Dumbledore greeted as “Professor Karkaroff.”  
There was excited whispering as one of the boys from Durmstrang passed, though Caelie didn’t know why. Maybe he was just handsome.  
Something about Professor Karkaroff made Caelie step closer to Snape as he passed. He was like Moody. She didn’t trust him.  
She stuck to Snape all the way back up the steps behind the party from Durmstrang.  
“Child, what’s wrong?” he asked, noticing her closeness.  
She just shook her head and pressed even closer. He briefly settled his hand on her shoulder giving it a squeeze before letting it drop.   
Draco joined them, and after having a silent conversation with Snape, took Caelie to his side, draping an arm around her shoulder.  
They settled at their house table, and shortly thereafter, so did the Durmstrang students.  
The boy people were whispering about sat near them and Draco leaned forward to speak with him.   
“Caelie, this is Viktor Krum, he plays Quiditch for the Bulgarian National Quidditch team. Krum, this is Caelie Northrop, my friend,” Draco introduced.  
“Very nice to meet you, Ms. Northrop,” Krum said in a thickly accented voice.  
Caelie nodded.  
*what Q-U-I-D-D-I-T-C-H* she asked Draco.  
Krum looked confusedly between the pair.  
“Caelie’s asking what Quidditch is,” Draco explained to Krum, “she doesn’t speak. Not that any of us mind. She gets her point across just fine without words.” Turning back to Caelie, Draco started to explain, “quidditch is a game played by wizards and witches. Each team consists of seven players, each flying on a broomstick. Players attempt to throw soccer-ball-size balls, called quaffles, through three large hoop goals at either end of the pitch; a goal is worth 10 points. One player on each team is designated the seeker, and it is his or her job to capture the golden snitch, a golden winged ball the size of a walnut that zips around the playing field of its own volition. The team that catches the snitch earns 150 points, which, generally allows that team to win and ends the game.”  
Krum nodded along and adde, wanting to show the small child that he meant no harm, “I am the seeker for my team. And catching the snitch does not always mean victory. In my last match Ireland won even though I caught the snitch.”  
“Yes, that’s true for professional games, but for games here, generally the team that catches the snitch wins. I seek for the Slytherin team.” Draco acquiesced.  
Caelie looked at the rest of the Durmstrang students. They were pulling off their heavy furs and looking up at the starry black ceiling with expressions of interest; a couple of them were picking up the golden plates and goblets and examining them, apparently impressed.   
The students from Beauxbatons had chosen seats at the Ravenclaw table. They were looking around the Great Hall with glum expressions of their faces. Three of them were still clutching scarves and shawls around their heads.  
Up at the staff table, Filch, the caretaker, was adding chairs. He was wearing his moldy old tailcoat in honor of the occasion. Caelie was surprised to see he added four chairs, two to each side of Dumbledore.  
When all the students had entered the Hall and settled down at their House tables, the staff entered, filing up to the top table and taking their seats. Last in line were Professor Dumbledore, Professor Karkaroff, and Madame Maxime. Whether headmistress appeared, the pupils from Beauxbatons left to their feet. A few of the Hogwarts students laughed. The Beauxbatons party appeared quite unembarrassed, however, and did not resume their seats until Madame Maxime had sat down on Dumbledore’s left-hand side. Dumbledore remained standing, and a silence fell over the Great Hall.  
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, ghosts and — most particularly — guests,” said Dumbledore, beaming around at the foreign students. He proceeded to welcome them, something the students from Beauxbatons scoffed at, and then announced that the tournament would be opened at the end of the feast.   
Food appeared as usual, and Draco started serving Caelie. He knew she wouldn’t be able to eat a full portion, so instead put many small portions in front of her and let her eat her fill. Only when he was satisfied with what was in front of her did he start filling his own plate.   
The two empty seats Caelie had noticed had been filled with official looking people. She nudged Draco and pointed to the seats signing *who*.  
“That’s Ludo Bagman next to Karkaroff, he’s Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry of Magic, and the other is Bartemius Crouch, he’s Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. They organized the Tournament and the five of them are going to judge the events,” he explained.  
When the feast was over, and the plates wiped clean, Dumbledore stood up and introduced the two newcomers. Then Mr. Crouch took over explaining the Tournament with all the rules and regulations.  
“The instructions for the asks the champions will face this year have already been examined by Mr. Crouch and Mr. Bagman and they have made the necessary arrangements for each challege. There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year and they will test the champions in many different ways… their magical prowess — their daring — their powers of deduction — and, of course, their ability to cope with danger” Dumbledore explained, “As you know, three champions compete in the tournament, one from each of the participating schools. They will be marked on how well they perform each of the tournament tasks and the champion with the highest total after task three will win the Triwizard Cup. The captions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire.”  
Dumbledore not took out his want and tapped three times upon the top of the casket that Filch had placed in front of him. The lid creaked slowly open. Dumbledore reached inside it and pulled out a large, roughly hewn wooden cup. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames.  
Dumbledore closed the casket and placed the goblet carefully on top of it, where it would be clearly visible to everyone in the Hall.  
“Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champion must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet. Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward. Tomorrow night, Halloween, the goblet will return the names of the three it has judged most worthy to represent their schools. The goblet will be placed in the entrance hall tonight, where it will be freely accessible to all those wishing to compete. To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation, I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire one it has been placed in the entrance hall. Nobody under the age of seventeen will be able to cross that line. Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered lightly. One a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obligated to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet. Now, I think it is time for bed. Goodnight to you all,” and with that Dumbledore was finished.   
Draco and Caelie returned to the Common Room, Viktor having told them that they would be spending the nights on their ship.  
—————  
The next morning Calie and Draco woke up extra early and went to go watch people put their names in the goblet.  
They watched, laughing, as Fred and George got expelled from the line sporting great long white beards that rivaled the looks of Dumbledores.  
Professor Dumbledore came out of the Great Hall and suggested that they go up to Madame Pomfrey to have the beards taken care of.  
Both the twins winked at Caelie as they passed her on their way to the marble staircase.  
—————  
That night there was another feast, and Draco, much like yesterday, served Caelie before himself, making sure to see that she ate.   
The Goblet of Fire was once again in front of the teachers table and was still flaming.  
When the feast ended and the plates cleared, Dumbledore lowered the lights and all attention went to the goblet.   
Dumbledore told those that were to be chosen to come to the top of the Hall and go through the door behind the staff table and wait for further instruction.  
Suddenly, the flames inside the goblet turned red. Sparks began to fly from it. Next moment, a tongue of flame shot into the air, a charred piece of parchment fluttered out of it — the whole room gasped.  
Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment and held it at arm’s length so he could read it by the light of the flames, which had returned to blue-white.  
“The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum,” he called in a booming voice.  
A storm of applause and cheering swept through the Hall and Krum rose and slouched off to go to the other room.  
“The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour,” Dumbledore called when a second piece of parchment had been propelled from the flames.  
A girl with silverly blonde hair, swept up between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables to follow Krum into the next room.  
“The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!” Dumbledore called.  
Diggory followed the other two as Dumbledore began to dismiss everyone, but before he could finish the fire in the goblet turned red again. Sparks were flying out of it. A long flame shot suddenly into the air, and borne upon it was another piece of parchment.  
Automatically, it seemed, Dumbledore reach out a long hand and seized the parchment. He held it out and stared at the name written upon it. There was a long pause, during ice Dumbledore stared at the slip in his hands, and everyone else stared at Dumbledore. And then Dumbledore cleared his throat and read out “Harry Potter!”  
There was outrage in the hall as Potter stood up, pushed by his bushy haired friend. Potter slowly went through the door to the others as Dumbledore dismissed them. Draco took Caelie to the Common Room and spoke on the way, “I told you he did things like this. I thought the twins said he wasn’t going to enter? How did he get past the Age Line? Just wait, I bet anything he’ll be killed during the first task. There’s a reason the age requirement was imposed. The last time the Tournament was held a champion and several onlookers were killed by a manticore. It’s not just fun and games, I thought Dumbledore explained that last night.”  
Caelie just nodded along. She wouldn’t want to be in Potters shoes. Nobody would like him for upstaging Diggory. Not to mention he’d be facing three highly dangerous tasks against people who had about three more years of training than he did. She did not envy Potter at all.


	13. Chapter 13

At first, Caelie thought the news of Potter getting chosen for the second Hogwarts champion would take away from the other’s desire to pick on her. There was someone who had done far more to insult them. From what she heard, Potter hadn’t even told his friends how he managed to get his name in the goblet. And Weasley was livid.  
Instead of taking out his anger on Potter, like Caelie expected, he turned it on her and the teasing became even more brutal, until it could only be defined as beatings.   
They were careful not to leave her unconscious after the last time, but they didn’t stay away from her either. They were careful not to keep her from her classes, since apparently Potter hand told Weasley that the twins still had the map.   
She continued with her glamours, and tried to use the notice-me-not charm every time she left class, but they still seemed to find her when she least expected it.  
It was on a Monday, just before potions, her final class until astronomy late that night when she hear a call.  
“Oi, FREAK!”  
She knew it was for her. That’s what her name was after all. Her real name. The one he gave her.  
She didn’t stop though. She sped up, praying to anyone who would listen to help her, save her. It did no good. The boy who had called out had reached her. It was Weasley. His “helpers” Smith, Corner, and Boot were behind him.  
“Freak thought it could out run us,” Weasley said, “what do you say we teach Freak a lesson?”  
He kicked her legs out from underneath her making her fall on the floor. He had already told her that he didn’t want to dirty his hands when “educating” her.  
“New rule, Freak” he said, accenting her name with a sharp kick, “Freak is to come when it is called. Freak is not to run away from her lessons since it is just so eager to learn.”  
And with the new rule in place, the four set about beating it in.   
The pain was building, numbing, she curled around her stomach, protecting her organs, and sheltered her head with her hands.   
A sharp kick on her back made her arch and reveal her stomach which was brutally kicked and she coughed up blood. She did not make a sound.  
The boys only faltered at the sight of blood on her lips, Smith kicked her once more and she vomited, blood more prominent in the mess on the floor. They stopped, scared by what they must have done.   
“I think Freak learned its lesson,” Weasley said softly.  
The four of them left.   
She sank into the floor, boneless, and allowed herself to be swept into an ocean dominated by pain. If she just let it carry her, she found it would make things easier. She imagined sinking through the floor to become invisible, nothingness, until the world around her turned completely black.   
—————  
When potions started and Caelie didn’t show up, he became nervous. Caelie was never late.   
He waited, lecturing instead of assigning them to brew like he was planning, looking at the door, wishing she’d come in. That she was okay. When nobody entered after 15 minutes, he told his class to write an essay on the theory of the potion they were going to have to start brewing on Thursday.  
He went to his office and took a pinch of floo powder, throwing it into the flames, he called out for Septima Vector who taught Arithmency. Draco should be in her class right now and she always had a student helper manning her floo and correcting papers while she taught.  
He asked for a word with Draco when the student, Hufflepuff seventh year Phil Lester, answered, Lester, being the kind of person who could read others, got Draco without question. He could tell from Snape’s face that it was important this was done quickly.  
Draco came into the office and knelt beside the fire.   
“Caelie’s missing. Come through the floo to my office, quickly, I need to get Fred and George. They still have the Map, they can help you look for her.”  
Draco stepped through the fire and waited in Snapes office while he called Fred and George from McGonagall’s class.  
When they were all in the office he told them to start looking, and to tell him when they found her.  
“I can’t leave a class of first year Slytherins and Ravenclaws together alone for too much longer, they’ll blow something up, even if they’re just supposed to be writing an essay.”  
Draco sniggered and the twins pulled out the map.  
“She’s on the 7th floor, by the tapestry of Barnibus the Barmy,” Fred said, after focusing the Map on Caelie.  
“She must have just come from History of Magic,” Draco said.  
“Well, if she did, she didn’t get very far, that’s just two corridors over,” George said, looking over Fred’s shoulder, “she isn’t moving.”  
“Let’s go,” Draco said, already moving out of the office and into the corridor.  
When they found Caelie, lying in her own blood and vomit, Fred lost any control he might have had. Ignoring the mess around her, Filch would take care of it and Fred wouldn’t even feel bad for him, he picked her up, vowing to find who had done this and make them pay.  
Draco was furious, and snatched the Map from George, casting the spell to show the events around Caelie.  
“It’s the same four fuckers as last time,” he growled.  
“I’m going to kill Ron,” George said.  
“I’ll help you with the rest,” Draco and Fred said at the same time.  
They brought her to the hospital wing again, explaining to Madame Pomfrey how they had found her.   
Madame Pomfrey led them quickly to the bed in front of the window, which she now kept free for a certain, red-haired child. She motioned for Fred to lay her down, and he did so with the upmost care, stroking hair out of her face and making sure she laid comfortably. She ran a diagnostic charm over Caelie, hoping that she wouldn’t find what she expected to find, what she had expected to find after Caelie refused to speak.   
“I need to get her out of these robes, George, go to my office and floo Professor Snape, he’s probably got somebody waiting for news. Fred, the diagnostic report will be on my desk, may you pease grab it. Draco, there are Hospital issue pajamas in the cupboard beside my office, you know Caelie’s size the best, may you grab a pair. Don’t come back in until I tell you to. I can’t just vanish the robes, because I don’t know the extent of the damage. Go,” she ordered her troops.   
They fled to their tasks, while she carefully started undressing the girl. There was blood everywhere. Deep lacerations covering her back, bruises were already starting to form on her back, stomach, legs and arms, but none on her neck or head. At least she had that going for her. She manually checked for tearing and bodily fluids where there should be none and was pleased to find no telltale signs of sexual abuse. One more thing to add to the good list, but the list ended right about there.   
She asked Draco to pass the pajamas through the curtains. He did so, and she dressed Caelie, tucking her into the bed, before calling in the boys who were waiting anxiously just outside the curtains.  
“Snape says he’s sending his first years to the library and he’ll be right up as soon as they’re settled,” George informed her as Fred handed her the roll of parchment and went to join Draco, who was sat in an armchair near the head of Caelie’s bed.   
George stood at the foot of the bed looking down at it sadly.  
“I didn’t have the heart to read it,” Fred said, meaning the contents of the parchment he had handed to Poppy.  
Poppy unrolled the parchment and read.   
Severe bruising to internal organs, stomach and kidneys  
Bruising to spine, tailbone and rib bones  
Fluid collected in lungs  
Cracked ribs, true ribs 6 and 7 on heart side, false rib 9 on right side  
Fractured metacarpals of the right hand  
But again, nothing of sexual abuse, which Poppy saw as a silver lining. Also, no injury to the head or neck, nor severe damage to the spine.  
“Is she going to be all right?” Draco asked.  
“She will physically recover, if that is what you mean Malfoy,” Poppy said, “but if you’re asking how she’ll handle this mentally when she wakes up, only time will tell. I have no idea of the extent of verbal abuse they spewed while doing this, but I’d be surprised if it was none at all.”  
At that moment Snape swept in, cloak billowing out behind him.  
“How is she?” he asked, never taking his eyes from where she lay, settling himself on the side of the bed near her head and stroking her forehead.  
“I have done all I can with her unconscious. She’s going to be in a lot of pain when she wakes up, but physically, she will recover, she should stay in bed for a week or so for her cracked ribs to set properly. I will leave it up to you, Severus, where she stays.”  
“Cracked ribs?” Snape said, aghast, “and you can’t use skelegrow on those?”  
“It would not help. The ribs need to be flexible to allow breathing, skelegrow would take the pliability away, and since we can’t use skelegrow for the ribs, her hand will have to be healed and held in one place, the muggle way, until her ribs have set. She won’t be able to use her hand either so schoolwork will have to be done another way,” Poppy explained.  
“Her hand? What happened?” Snape asked.  
Poppy said nothing, but handed over the roll of parchment. Snape paled as he read it.   
“But no…” he cut himself off before saying the dreaded words.  
“Luckily no, but I wouldn’t put it past them to have infiltrated her mind just the same way attackers of that nature do to their victims.”  
“I’ll help her with her homework,” Draco said suddenly, “We can find some way of communicating in order for it to get done. I don’t mind. It’s my fault anyway, I walk her to classes and I didn’t get back from Care of Magical Creatures soon enough. I didn’t even check to see if she was okay before going to Arithmency.”  
Fred put his arm around Draco, as George came to stand behind him.  
“Dragon, it isn’t your fault. It’s our prick of a brother—” Fred said.  
“Sorry Professor, Poppy dear—” George apologized.  
“Who is to blame.” Fred finished as if George hadn’t said anything, before adding: “but he isn’t our brother anymore, is he Gred?”  
“‘Fraid not, Forge. No brother of mine would ever pick on an innocent for whatever reason.”  
“We’ve renounced him,” Fred said turning to Snape, “we don’t recognize him anymore.”  
“Drives him up the walls, but we can’t be bothered to care,” George added.  
“The nuisances are right, Draco” Snape said, “If you’re to blame, so am I. I waited almost twenty minutes before sending you off to look. I didn’t go look for myself. I didn’t even check to see if she had been in History of Magic. But even if we had done all that, that wouldn’t have necessarily stopped this from happening.  
“I will allow you to stay until dinner, but then you have to go down to the Great Hall and eat. You can come back tomorrow, but you have homework and class tomorrow. I need to discuss things with Madame Pomfrey in private,” he said.   
The boys nodded their understanding and settled down talking quietly amongst themselves.  
Snape and Poppy went to her office and sat down.  
“I will not have her moved until she regains conciseness and I can do a more thorough check up,” Poppy started.  
“I would ask nothing more of you, however, after that, I wish to move her into private quarters, I need to talk with Albus about that. She needs a place to stay where she can be herself without anyone watching or judging. I know she isn’t a favourite in my house, merely because of blood status. And she cannot go anywhere else because of that,” said Snape, gesturing to the bed, “Of course, we would need access to the rooms, and the boys could come and go, but it would be for her.”  
“Albus would be against isolating her in that way, you know how he is about integration,” Poppy pointed out.  
“Maybe I could explain the situation,” said Snape, but he already knew that Dumbledore’s response would be that it would only make Caelie into a stronger person, after all, that’s what he had said when Snape himself was being bullied during his school career.  
“That wouldn’t work,” Poppy said bluntly, “but I could come with you and say it’s in her best interest from a medical standpoint. She needs a place to rest, free of distractions, and I can’t have her staying here because the boys who did this could visit any time they wanted, all they’d have to do is have some kind of medical complaint and I’m obligated to let them in.”  
“That could work. At least, it has a better chance of working than any of the other arguments. When should we go see him?”  
“I don’t want to leave her alone unconscious because I don’t know what complications might arise when she comes to, but I also don’t want to leave her here conscious when one of her attackers might come in. And I can’t have her moved just yet.”  
“Maybe we could have him come down here, after all, it is a ‘medical standpoint’ and it would have nothing to do with my desires as a teacher, but your desires as a healer,” he suggested.  
“I will floo him after dinner then, he always goes up to his office to do whatever he does up there before retiring,” Poppy decided.  
They both looked out as the boys stood to leave. It was time for dinner.  
Snape went and sat beside Caelie again, and called Fae to bring him and Poppy some dinner. He wouldn’t be leaving Caelie until he absolutely had to.   
—————  
After dinner, Poppy called the Headmaster to the Hospital Wing and Snape pulled out a book.   
Snape stayed with Caelie while Poppy made her case, knowing that if he showed an interest in moving her, Dumbledore would see the ploy for what it was, and deny the isolation.  
Dumbledore left the office after a few minutes, to come see Caelie in person. Snape didn’t look up as he passed the curtained barrier, and continued to read.   
“I’m sure you’re aware of the request Poppy has made in regard to Ms. Northrop?” asked Dumbledore.  
“She has informed me, yes,” Snape said, careful not to lie. Dumbledore could see lies, but if he only kept to half-truths, Snape could get away with it.  
“I believe, as does Poppy, that it would do to isolate the girl until she has made a full recovery. Has she spoken yet?”  
Making it sound like your own idea. I’ll play your game.  
“She has yet to speak, Headmaster, and I am concerned, now more than ever, of her wellbeing attending this school with people who wish to hurt her. Mentally, she may never recover the indignities forced upon her at the hands of her attackers here and of her uncle at home. As such, I wish for there to be a formal inquiry about the events that led to Ms. Northrop being here, unconscious with several broken bones in her hands and chest and a bruised spine. Were you aware that before she lost consciousness, she vomited her own blood? I want the boys responsible appropriately punished for injuries of this nature preformed without provocation.”  
Dumbledore looked shocked, but quickly hid the emotion, “I had no idea the injuries were that severe.”  
“Really Headmaster? I thought you knew all the goings on in this school,” Snape said.  
“I will see what I can do about private chambers. Poppy will need access of course, as will you, being her Head of House, but I can’t see what can be done about schoolwork if she can’t even speak to a Quick Quotes Quill,” said Dumbledore.  
“We will find a way,” said Snape, thinking of all the other ways Caelie knew to communicate.  
“Now that that’s taken care of, I bid you goodnight. Sleep well, my boy,” and Dumbledore left the Wing.   
“I could really hate that man sometimes,” Poppy said once the doors behind him had closed, “let me check on her again.”  
Snape moved over as Poppy went about checking Caelie for any new complications.  
“I’m going to retire,” she said as she finished, when she saw Snape sit back down on Caelie’s bed she added, “oh by all means, make yourself at home, it’s not as if you have classes to teach tomorrow.”  
“I want to be here when she wakes. I can send my classes to the library, or Dumbledore can find a temporary replacement.”  
“Very well, goodnight, Severus.”  
“Goodnight, Poppy.”


	14. Chapter 14

Snape was there when Caelie woke up Wednesday afternoon.   
When she woke up she was extremely confused. She had been drifting for so long, but she had heard Snape’s voice and had fought to join it. Now that she was back, aching and in pain, she didn’t know why she had ever left the sanctuary in her head. Until, that is, she heard the soft gasp of “child,” that escaped Snape’s lips as she was pulled into a hug. This warmth was why she had come back, and she never wanted to leave again.  
“Gently,” Poppy scolded, coming through the curtains, “Severus, let her go, I need to check a few things before you get all fatherly on her.”  
He reluctantly lay her back down, but didn’t move.  
Poppy came closer to the bed.   
“Caelie, do you mind helping me check something?” she asked.  
Caelie shook her head.  
“Very good, I’m going to go up your body and you’re going to nod if you feel the touches, and move each part for me, okay?”  
Caelie nodded.  
She moved each one of her toes, on both feet, both ankles, she could feel her lower legs and could bend her knees. Her thighs and hips were just fine too. She had trouble moving her torso without pain, but Madame Pomfrey seemed to expect that one. She had full control of her shoulders, elbows and her left hand, but her right hand hurt to move from the wrist down. Pomfrey had expected that too. Her neck was stiff and her head pounded, but Pomfrey said that there were no complications that they didn’t already know about.  
Pomfrey gave her something for her headache and then sat down to explain the injuries that she had received and what they planned to do for them.  
“Child, we are going to move you to your own private chambers so you can rest and heal without worrying about others. They’re located in the dungeons near my own personal rooms. It has a fireplace that is connected via floo to both me and Poppy, and I’ve assigned Fae to get you anything you might need, from one of us to a midnight snack. Are you okay with this?”  
*Draco Fred George*  
“Yes, the boys will be able to visit you, but only after you’ve settled in. They will be helping you keep up with schoolwork while you are bedridden and until your hand is healed.”  
Caelie nodded, as long as she wasn’t alone, she would be fine.  
“You are okay with it?”  
She nodded again.  
“Good, would you like to go there now, or after lunch?”  
*now*  
“Poppy, if I may?” Snape asked, Poppy nodded her permission.  
Snape picked Caelie up with one arm around her shoulders and one under her knees, Caelie clung on around his neck, startled at the sudden change in position.   
“You are much too light, child.”  
Caelie hid her face in his neck.  
Snape went through Poppy’s office and to the fireplace where he took a pinch of powder and threw it into the flames, which turned green and then called out, “Little Haven” and stepped in, holding Caelie tight to his chest.  
They spun for a few seconds before Snape was stepping out of the warm, green flames and into a new room.  
It was cozy with light wood floors and light grey walls, a black couch and matching armchairs, a small table made of white polished wood that sat on a deep red rug. The fireplace mantle was made of black marble with gold filigree laid into the designs.  
There were three doors leading from the room.  
Snape, repositioning Caelie, so she sat on one hip rather than draped across him, pointed with his newly freed hand to the door to the right, “That door leads to the corridor outside, if you go left and down the hall a little, you’ll see a portrait of a young girl by the name of Artemis. She guards the entrance to my quarters. The password is ‘ashwinder feet.'”  
Caelie silently laughed at this, ashwinders were snakes and didn’t have feet.  
“The password to your quarters is ‘erised’ which is desire backwards, it is guarded by the portrait of a cat named Luna. That door,” he pointed at the door directly across from the fireplace, “leads to your bedroom, shall we go look?”  
Caelie nodded, and Snape went to go open the door.  
Lights flickered on as they entered, revealing a fourposter bed with black sheets and deep purple pillows, the hangings looked like the most delicate silver material, but when Snape brought her over to touch, felt sturdy and warm like wool, the floor was the same light wood as in the first room, but this time it was covered by a purple rug to match the pillows on the bed. There was a wardrobe standing in the corner made of the same polished white wood as the table, and the walls were a muted green that almost seemed grey.   
“That door,” Snape said, going to a second door from the bedroom, “leads to the bathroom.”  
He walked in.  
The floors were done in white tile that continued up the wall in a gradient to grey, the fixtures were tarnished copper and the tub, sink and toilet were black marble like the fireplace.  
“The floor has a heating charm on it, so it will never get cold,” said Snape.  
They walked back out to the living room and then went over through the final door to the left of the fireplace.  
As they entered, the lights came on and Caelie saw a large room with a few cupboards along the outside. The floors were the same light wood and the walls were mahogany.   
“This is where we will be practicing your magic, I have decided that we will be updating our studies to include a multitude of protective spells. We will still finish this years curriculum, but we will focus more on your ability to protect yourself from future attackers. It will help me feel better about letting you leave this room without me.”   
He hugged her close and whispered, “You scared me, child. I never want to feel that again.”  
He walked out into the living room again and sat on the couch, transferring Caelie to his lap.   
“Ms. Grey will come see you sometime this week. Poppy will check in on you every day, as will I, and Draco, Fred and George will come to help you with your schoolwork. They have permission to eat dinner down here with you, but they still have to be back in their own dorms before curfew. Fae will bring you anything you need, you only have to call and she will come. The floo will only allow me or Poppy to enter, though the Headmaster may find it within his power to come through. Does it look all right?”   
Caelie nodded and hugged Snape, burying her face in his chest so he wouldn’t see her tears. She had never had anything like this before, and it was all for her. She would never be able to repay Severus for this.   
Snape felt moisture through his shirt and realised Caelie was crying, “I’m so glad you like it. I wanted you to have somewhere where you could feel safe, somewhere where you can be entirely yourself, without your uncles rules. There are no such rules in here. I’d like for you to think of these rooms as your haven.”  
Caelie cried harder, but this time, she made sound.  
Snape, upon hearing her sobs, the only indication of what her voice might sound like should she feel comfortable enough to use it, felt his heart break. He pressed his lips to the top of her head, holding to her tightly, and whispered words of comfort until she fell silent once more.   
“Let’s get you to bed, or I will never hear the end of it from Poppy,” said Snape, when he felt they were both calm enough to continue.   
She nodded and Snape stood up, still holding her and carried her to bed.  
He stayed with her, stroking her hair until she went to sleep. 


	15. Chapter 15

“I like your new rooms, Caelie. What do you think of them?” Ms. Grey asked, sitting in one of the armchairs.  
Snape was in the corner in the other chair, reading a book, Caelie had insisted that he be there during the meeting. It helped create a sense of stability during these strange conversations.  
*love beautiful*  
“They are beautiful, aren’t they?” Ms. Grey said, “I heard about the beginning of your week. How are you feeling now?”  
Caelie shrugged.  
*hurt soft*  
“You’re sore?”  
A nod.  
“Would you like to share what happened?”  
Caelie shook her head frantically. Severus couldn’t see this memory. He thought she was strong. He didn’t see that she was a freak, but he would see if she showed him. Then he’d leave her. And she didn’t want him to leave her. He was her rock.  
“That’s okay, you don’t have to. Let’s do something else instead, I have more canvases and paint, but this time I also have music. Do you listen to music?”  
Caelie shook her head, her mother didn’t like music and her uncle never let her listen.  
Ms. Grey conjured an easel and placed the canvas on it, setting the paints on the table, then went to set the music up.  
“I’m going to play some music and I want you to paint what you see, okay? Something easy for you today. I have many different kinds of music with me, so at the end, you’re going to have to tell me, with the paintings, what your favourite kind was, okay?”  
Caelie nodded. This sounded like it was going to be fun.  
“This first one is a Mozart symphony that he named ‘Jupiter,’” Ms. Grey said.  
Powerful music came forth, it held power and beauty at the same time, with light notes and heavy notes, all blending into one piece of music. She had never heard nor seen anything like it.  
She started painting as the music went on, sometimes stopping and just listening to the beauty before her. It almost felt like an adventure.  
Before she knew it, the symphony was over. Ms. Grey was labeling the canvas and drying it before placing it near the fireplace.  
“This next one is the Manfred Symphony by Tchaikovsky, the Andante Con Moto section, its similar in genre, but I still feel as if this one is very different from the last one.”  
Soft music came forward. It made Caelie feel at peace. It was beautiful, in the way a summer day was, instead of the powerful strong way the Jupiter symphony was.  
She let the feel of it wash over her as she watched and tried to capture it on canvas.   
This too was over long before she wanted it to be.  
“One last classical piece before we move on, this one is the Presto section of L’Estate meaning Summer, from Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons.’”  
Frantic, jagged music in burt orange and hunter green forced their way to her. It almost hurt. Her heart beat faster as she listed. She struggled to keep up with the images assaulting her. It was not Summer in the way she thought of it, it was the frantic gathering of life force before everything started dying. It reminded her of the buzzing of bees and the twittering of birds. Of intense, relentless heat. The music scared her. She did not like this one.  
Luckily it wasn’t too long.  
“Okay, new genre, this one has words, this one is by the Beatles, have you heard of them? They were a famous British band that swept the word into a craze. Beatlemania my generation called it. This is ‘Across the Universe.’”  
It started out similarly to the first ones, but when the man started singing burnt orange shifted to sky blue, specks of lilac floated in seas of turquoise. Dark blue was dispersed through, during random intervals. It was beautiful to watch. Constantly changing and moving, yet strangely calming, hypnotizing almost.  
“This one is newer, ‘Tiny Glowing Screens, Part 2’ by a man who calls himself Watsky. He speaks with music instead of singing.”  
Deep colours started fluctuating. Purple with blue with green with brown with red, constantly changing. She started listening to the words and suddenly bright colours started flashing, pink once, then yellow. Light green was the most prominent, and it wove around the dark colours, bringing them to life. It was wordplay, a music all its own, and she loved it.  
“This final one is by Alice Francis, and it’s called ‘Shoot Him Down,’ I think it will surprise you.”  
The music was coloured like melons, light orange, unassuming green, bright red, but when Alice started singing, the entire thing came to life. She added bubblegum pink to the mix, then changed to yellow, then to a deep furious red. It was very exciting.   
“Was that fun?”  
Caelie nodded. She liked music.   
Snape had stopped reading to watch Caelie as she painted, it was amazing to see her turn sound into something you could see, and she was very good at making her art look alive. She captured the very soul of the music without even trying.   
He was going to have to get her some more music.  
“Lets go over some of them. Did you have a favourite?”  
She shook her head.   
“How about a least favourite?”  
That one she did have. She pointed to the Vivaldi painting. It scared her.  
“Not a fan of Vivaldi’s Summer? Which part didn’t you like, does it have a colour?”  
She pointed to the burnt orange. That was the part that was not good.  
“Do you have a favourite colour?”  
She pointed out all the jewel tones, deep rich colours that seemed to go on forever, and black.  
“Would you say the music with these colours were your favourites?”  
Caelie started to nod, but then remembered how sometimes a voice changed all the colours into something different, something alive, and shook her head.  
*speaking living*  
“The voices made the music turn alive?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Did you like Mozart and Tchaikovsky?”  
She nodded.  
*beautiful nature*  
“They reminded you of nature?”  
Nod.  
“Did Vivaldi remind you of nature too?”  
Another nod.  
“What part of Vivaldi didn’t you like?”  
*Mother*  
“It reminded you of your mother?”  
A nod.  
“Does the orange remind you of your mother too?”  
Caelie shrugged, she really didn’t know. She looked at the colour then made the jagged shapes with her finger in the air.  
“The shape of the music reminded you of your mother?”  
A nod, then Caelie pointed at the orange, *fire*  
“The orange reminds you of fire?”  
“Her mother died in a fire,” Snape interjected before Ms. Grey could dig too far into that memory. He was watching Caelie, she had started to shake and refused to make eye contact.   
“What does this colour remind you of?” she asked, changing tactics. She pointed to a deep ruby red colour.  
*safe warm Severus*   
Caelie looked over at Snape with a small smile. His eyes were suspiciously wet looking.  
“And this colour here?” She pointed to a bright yellow.  
*healthy Poppy*  
“Very good. So do these songs remind you of those people?”  
Caelie thought about this, then shook her head. The music itself didn’t remind her of anyone, just the colours.  
Just then an alarm went off, Ms. Grey reached into her pockets and pulled out a fob watch that was crying in a tinny voice “time for supper!”  
Snape cast a tempus and saw that it was, indeed, time to eat.  
“I think that’s the cue to wrap things up,” Ms. Grey said with a wink, “would you like to keep these?”  
Caelie nodded. She liked the reminders of the music. She looked at the Vivaldi one, maybe she could learn to like that one too.   
Ms. Grey smiled, gathered up her things, and then stepped through the floo with one final goodbye.  
“Draco and the twins should be down here soon to eat with you. Do you need anything?” Snape asked, coming over to her.  
*stay*  
“You want me to stay?”  
Caelie nodded. She felt safe with Severus.  
“Okay, just this once, I will stay,” he said, before calling Fae.  
“Yes, Master Snape, how can Fae being help to yous?” Fae asked.  
“I’d like you to bring up dinner for four, something healthy with plenty of liquids. I’m sure you can manage,” Snape ordered.  
“Of course, Master Snape, Fae be getting that now, sir,” said Fae with a bow, before she popped  away.  
There was a knock at the door and Caelie answered it, to see Fred and George with their arms around Draco in the doorway.  
“How was your meeting—”  
“—With the lovely Ms. Grey?” Fred and George asked as they walked in.  
Caelie gave them a thumbs up and a small smile before pointing to the paintings by the fireplace.  
“Who are these?” asked Draco, “None of our voices looked like that.”  
*music* Caelie signed as Snape said it at the same time.   
They looked at one another with smiles in their eyes.   
“Creepy,” Fred and George said together at the same time.  
“And it isn’t when you do it?” Draco questioned.  
“No, because we basically have the same brain,” said George.  
“Those two don’t,” said Fred.  
“I still don’t see the difference,” Draco argued.  
“We can’t help you with that,” Fred said.  
“So this is music? What kind of music?” George asked.  
Caelie looked at Snape to explain. She had no idea how to do that.  
“Three of them were classical pieces by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Vivaldi, another was of The Beatles. There was a spoken word by an artist called Watsky and a swing-like piece from someone called Alice Francis,” Snape explained, pointing to each painting as he told them of the music.  
“Can’t say I’ve heard of those last two,” George said, “but these are quite pretty.”  
“I thought so too,” Snape said, smiling down at Caelie.  
“Quick George, run for the door, I’ll cover you. Snape is smiling, we’re all going to die!” Fred shouted.  
“Oh shut up you two,” Draco groused.  
“Hey! I didn’t say anything!” George protested.  
“Well, you’re talking now, so shut up,” Draco said.  
“Don’t worry, Little Ina, he’s not really mad—” George whispered.  
“He just gets crabby when he’s hungry,” said Fred.  
“Then let’s eat,” said Snape, just as Fae popped back into the room with a tray that she placed on the low table in between the seats in the living room.   
Snape sat down in one of the armchairs, while both the twins tried to sit in the other. Draco sat on the couch, watching the two of them fight. Caelie sat at Snape’s feet, leaning back on his legs.  
She was too small to reach the table if she sat on one of the chairs.  
“Well, don’t complain if I drop food on you,” Snape said, startled by her choice of seat. Looking over at the twins, who were still fighting over the armchair, he said, “Will you two settle down and eat. There’s enough room on both the couch and the floor. You don’t have to be joined at the hip for every little thing.”  
“Fine,” George said, and slid to the floor beside Caelie.  
“Ooh, it’s nice down here, I see why you do this,” he said to Caelie, “Draco, you should join us.”  
“Malfoy’s don’t sit on floors,” Draco said with false pride.  
“Really? After getting to know you, I’d say you’re more Black than Malfoy, and I’m positive that a Black would sit on the floor and have fun,” Fred said, also sliding to the floor.  
Draco rolled his eyes and joined them on the floor with much more decorum than the twins had done, “If any of you tell my father about this, I will personally skin you.”  
“We aren’t in the habit of speaking to your father actually,” Fred said.  
“Shocker really, you’d think we’d have done that by now,” George said, “Would you like to join us on the floor, Professor?”   
“There’s plenty of room, and it is quite comfortable,” Fred said.  
“I’m quite comfortable here, you may have the floor to yourselves,” Snape said, before leaning forward and grabbing a plate, careful — despite what he had said before — to not spill anything on the girl leaning on his legs.   
The five of them shared a wonderful meal together, talking about the Triwizard Tournament and cracking jokes. Caelie had almost forgotten about the session with Ms. Grey and felt lighter for it, until she looked in the corner.  
Snape saw her looking and the expression on her face and made a note to put those elsewhere for now. 


	16. Chapter 16

After dinner was over and conversation had slowed, Snape dismissed the boys and sent them to their respective dorms.  
The four of them bid each other goodnight and left while Snape got the bed ready for Caelie. He liked taking care of her, it made him felt needed in a way he hadn’t done since he’d taken care of his own mother.   
Caelie walked into her bedroom and Snape picked her up in a hug.   
“Go get your pajamas on,” he said, after putting her down.  
*stay*  
“I’ll stay until you go to sleep, now go get ready to do so.”  
Caelie ran to her bathroom and got dressed in her pajamas faster than she ever had before. She came back out, afraid that Severus would have left her, but he was sitting on the edge of her bed, just like he promised. She ran up and hugged him.  
“Now, child, what’s this?” he asked as he held her.  
*you stay*  
“Of course I stayed. I told you I would, didn’t I?”  
*show you write* she signed before hopping down and going to her desk where she kept her journal.  
Snape was still trying to figure out what she had meant until Caelie was back in front of him, holding a book out.  
“Is this your journal?” he asked.  
She nodded, then opened the front page where there was a key for private and sharing.  
*read star*  
“I get to read the starred passages? Are you sure?” he was touched by the amount of trust she had for him. He didn’t deserve it.  
She nodded.  
*trust*  
He read the passages.  
Caelie knew what he was reading, she had read them over and over again to make sure it would be okay for her to show Ms. Grey. She was even going to let him read the one about the thoughts she had had about death.  
There were new ones too, ones that she would only show to Severus. It was about the floating.  
—————  
Sometimes, I feel like I am floating. I get restless and I can’t stop moving. My chest feels too big and too small for my heart at the same time. I just want to cut it open, but I don’t because that would be bad.  
It becomes difficult to breathe and all I want to do is scream, but I can’t. I only move around.   
I’m stuck on the ceiling and I can’t get down because that part of me can’t move and the part on the ground wants it back, but I can’t reach.   
I’m everywhere and no where all at once and I can’t get back to me.   
Things crawl underneath my skin and mirrors lie.   
I can’t get away from any of it because I am still floating. I’m trapped and I can’t get back to me.  
My mom used to tell me that the floating was good. It meant you weren’t held down by anything, but I think the floating is bad because you aren’t held down by anything. There is nothing keeping you together and you’ll just fade.  
—————  
It hurts to breathe, and I just want to give my heart more room in my chest.   
I run around the room to try to get back to one piece. I used to think that getting tired would pull me down from the ceiling, but I’d just lay on my back and watch as the rest of me floated around above me.  
It’s not a fun feeling, floating. It makes me feel lost. Like I’m supposed to be doing something, but I can’t remember what it is I’m supposed to do.  
I can’t get rid of the feeling.  
—————  
I need to scream, to get the pressure out of my chest. But I can’t break the rules. He would be so mad if I did.  
—————  
I’m still somewhere up on the ceiling. Nobody else sees me up there, and I can’t get down by myself.  
—————  
She was most nervous about the floating, but she had to tell somebody, and who else to tell, but Severus. Maybe once she told him, he’d be able to get her down.  
She’d been up there for a few weeks, and she was still there.   
She was beginning to have really bad nightmares, ones of people catching each piece of her and pulling them far away from one another, so she would never be whole again.  
Snape finally looked up. She refused to meet his eyes.  
She remembered the one about how strong he thought she was. He wouldn’t think her strong anymore if she couldn’t be one piece.   
“Look at me child,” he said gently, “are you still feeling this way?”  
*broken me*  
“You are not broken. You are the strongest person I know, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have problems. Everyone has problems. Just because you have problems, doesn’t mean you are broken. Answer me, are you still floating?”  
Caelie nodded.  
“Come here, let’s try something,” he said, gesturing for her to lie on the bed.  
She did so and he tucked her in tightly into bed so she’d feel grounded, then he carefully laid down on top of her to add extra weight. He arranged her so that she was turtled underneath him, and told her to breathe with him.  
She did so, slowly in and out.  
The weight reminded her that she was still there. On her bed. Not on the ceiling. The pressure in her chest lessened.   
Snape began speaking to her, “You are here child. You are with me. I will always come when you call. I will get you down. You are here. You are my own.”  
And she was. All of her was together again. And she felt better than she had in weeks.  
Snape felt her relax under him, but stayed put until he heard only deep, even breathing that showed that she was asleep.   
He sat up, careful not to wake her, and leaned back against the headboard, stroking her hair and thinking of the journal entries he had read.   
He was glad the journaling was working for her. Letting her to let go some.   
Caelie truly was the strongest person he had ever known.   
It was surprising to see her work out the self-destructive relationship she had with her mother, to begin to understand the problems her mother must have had.   
He wondered again, who her father was, but he knew Dumbledore would never tell him.  
He was scared by the thoughts she had been having when she was a little girl, they were much to heavy for her to have to bear. But they had stopped, and they had stopped because of him. What had he done to deserve someone like her looking up to him? In all his life, the mistakes he’d made, Lily, Voldemort, Dumbledore. How did they allow him to have the happiness and pride he felt now? The fierce love he had for a child he barely even knew? And to know that love was returned, that Caelie felt the same way, that was unbelievable.   
He was angry with her uncle. The rules he gave must have been branded into her brain. The fact that she never referred to the man as anything other than Him was another thing. What had happened to make her afraid of using his name? And Caelie was right, he did dislike those rules. He wished that they were never implemented and he wished that she could just let them go.   
That made him think. Maybe she needed the rules, maybe they let her stay grounded in a way that freedom didn’t. She didn’t need the destructive rules of her uncle, but he could give her new rules that overrode the old ones. Not that he minded helping her like he had just done. He’d do anything for the girl.   
The lack of worth she had for herself hurt him. She had described his own feelings toward her perfectly, the feeling that he didn’t deserve her attention. She didn’t know that she deserved everything the world had to offer. She was not below anyone. She was worth it.  
The comparison between her bullies and her uncle scared him. It was worse than they thought if she was comparing their minds to his. They had left damage in her mind that Poppy wasn’t able to find.   
The dreams too, were scary. How often did she have nightmares? How come he had never heard of them? Surely, her dorm mates would have noticed?   
But then again, maybe not. Maybe she learned how to silence her bed, or learned from her uncle to not cry out, even in sleep.   
Thinking of her description of him, he thought of course I love you, you silly girl. I love you like my own.   
He made up his mind to tell her that when she woke.   
One thing was for certain: He would do everything in his power to keep her safe. He never wanted her to be hurt like that again.


	17. Chapter 17

The first Triwizard Task was on a Tuesday afternoon, which Caelie found odd, but she didn’t mind. It wasn’t like she was doing anything on Tuesday.   
She had just been cleared to go back to class, but she still couldn’t do anything with her right hand.   
Snape had been teaching her defensive magic with her left hand. She was getting good at it too, but Snape had told her not to tell or show anyone that she could do it. He was also quite angry that she had never even heard of most of the spells, they were standard spells that were supposed to be taught in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Professor Moody hadn’t had them even look at the text book, much less teach them the spells it contained.  
After learning she could do magic with both hands, she had been practicing all the spells she knew with her non-dominant hand in her own time.   
She had considered learning to write with her left hand as well, but decided that that venture would take too much time. Maybe she’d teach it to herself over the summer.   
Caelie watched at the Champions were led down to the grounds during lunch so they could prepare for the task ahead of them. She had to go to her afternoon class, then meet with Draco and Severus in Severus’s office, and they would walk down together.   
When the time finally came, Caelie walked down into the dungeons to meet with Draco and Severus.   
Snape insisted on walking down to the grounds with them and sitting behind them in the stands. Not that Caelie cared. She felt safer with him there. The twins had joined them in the stands and were now sitting in front of them.  
She knew what they were doing, but she just decided to let them protect her, it didn’t matter. She had a new rule anyway. If Weasley wanted her, all he’d have to do was yell.  
Snape looked down at the girl in front of him. He knew what the task was and had his wand in hand hidden in his robes should anything go wrong. Caelie would not be hurt again. Not while he could do anything to stop it.   
They all sat in the stands while latecomers trickled in and found seats.   
Dumbledore stood, and holding his wand to his throat to project his voice, explained that the champions would each have to collect the golden egg, that was sitting in a large nest of some sort in the middle of the arena.   
A whistle blew and a few moments later, Cedric Diggory came out.  
As soon as he stepped into the arena, a large blueish-grey dragon came from the opposite end. A few people in the stands, screamed. Draco gasped.   
Snape leaned forward and whispered, “That is a Swedish Short-Snout, notice the length of its muzzle, when you see the others, you’ll understand.”  
Cedric halted, Caelie didn’t blame him. The dragon looked terrifying, and she wasn’t even the one who was supposed to raid its nest.   
The dragon roared at him, shooting fire, and Bagman, who apparently was commentating, shouted, “Oooh, narrow miss there, very narrow.”  
Cedric began going towards the egg, dodging best he could and shooting spells at the beast, but everything seemed to just bounce off. Until one hit the dragon in the eye and it screamed.  
“He’s taking risks, this one. Don’t think I’ve ever seen a dragon that mad!”  
Cedric muttered something, and a rock that was near the dragon turned into a golden retriever. The crowd yelled. The dragon went after the dog. The poor thing was running for its life, and Cedric used the distraction to go for the egg.   
He was almost there when the dragon, who had caught and eaten the dog, turned on him with a roar. Fire came out of its mouth, burning Cedric, while the crowd screamed.   
“Clever move—pity it didn’t work.”   
But it didn’t matter, Cedric had got the egg. The crowd roared almost as fiercely as the dragon had just done.  
A team of people in heavy-looking leather came out of the entrance the dragon had come out of with their wands raised. They subdued the dragon and took it back to wherever it came from, while Madame Pomfrey had come out to treat the worst of Cedric’s burns.  
When the dragon was safely away, Bagman announced, “Very good indeed! And now the marks from the judges!” and the judging began.  
Each judge gave marks out of ten.   
Madame Maxime stood and raised her wand, she thought for a minute before a silver ribbon came out of it, forming the number 7.  
Mr. Crouch did the same, and Cedric earned a 7 from him too.  
In the end, Cedric had a score of 37, and Caelie thought he did rather well.   
“One down, three to go!” Bagman yelled as Cedric and Madame Pomfrey exited the arena, and the whistle blew again.  
“Miss Delacour, if you please!”  
Fluer Delacour’s dragon was delicately boned with green scales, and translucent wings that showed off silver boning.   
“A Welsh Green,” Snape informed her.  
She stepped out directly in front of the dragon and began casting some kind of charm. She was singing.   
The dragon certainly did not appreciate the efforts. It roared and fire shot out of its mouth. She hid behind a rock.  
“Oh I’m not sure that was wise!” Bagman shouted gleefully.  
She tried the charm again and this time it worked. The Wesh Green went into a kind of trance and swayed where it stood. Fluer continued singing and dodging the swaying dragon.  
“Oh… nearly there! Nearly there!”  
The dragon fell down, fast asleep.  
“Careful now!”  
She was almost at the nest, still singing, when the dragon snored and a stream of fire came out of its mouth and caught her skirt of fire.   
She put it out quickly while Bagman was shouting, “Good lord, I thought she’d had it then!”  
The crowd erupted into applause once more as Fluer finally got to the egg.  
Fluer stood by for her marks as the sleeping dragon was taken away.   
She received a score of 38, one more than Cedric.  
She exited the arena smiling. Caelie would have been smiling too, if she had just survived a dragon nest raid.   
“And here comes Mr. Krum!” cried Bagman as a whistle blew and Viktor slouched out.  
Caelie held her breath. She liked Viktor. He was always nice to her when they ate together.   
His dragon came out, and the crowd screamed again.  
His dragon was literally on fire.   
“That is the Chinese Fireball, it has a nasty habit of lighting itself on fire. Because of it’s hide, the dragon isn’t actually hurt by this, but it makes it dangerous for their eggs and young, who haven't developed the fireproof hide yet. They protect their young very fiercely because it is so difficult for them to grow to full size without being burned,” Snape said.  
Viktor shot something into the dragon’s eye, and it emit a horrible, roaring shriek, while the crowd drew its collective breath. It began trampling around, obviously in pain, while Viktor tried to avoid it’s feet.  
“Very daring!” Bagman shouted.  
Caelie felt bad for the dragon as it screamed again, in pain, and trampled over its own eggs.   
Finally, Viktor reached the nest and collected the egg as Bagman yelled, “That’s some nerve he’s showing — and — yes, he’s got the egg!”  
Applause shattered the wintery air like breaking glass.  
The team of dragon trainers came out again to get the dragon under control. When it had left the stadium, the scoring began.  
Viktor got a score of 40, because Professor Karkaroff gave him a 10, all the other judges marked him down for destroying the eggs. He wasn’t supposed to damage them.  
Another whistle blew and Bagman announced Harry Potter to the arena as Harry himself, staggered in, tripping on a rock.  
At the other end of the enclosure, there was a black dragon covered in spines with great yellow eyes. She was thrashing her tail, leaving long gorge marks in the stone around her.  
“That’s a Hungarian Horntail, vicious creatures even by dragon standards. If it doesn’t kill you with fire, it’ll kill you with its tail.”  
Without moving from his spot, Harry yelled something as he raised his wand.  
He waited without moving. The crowd started whispering, was he ever going to move?   
Then there was a strange sort of whistling sound and Harry spun around just as his broomstick stopped next to him.  
The crowd was screaming now, full of excitement.   
“And Potter has called up a broomstick! Good Lord, is that a Firebolt?” Bagman yelled.  
Harry swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground.  
Caelie had never seen anyone fly before, but from the gasps and cheers, she assumed he was very good at it. He looked very good at it.  
He flew up until he was a minuscule figure in the sky and began circling. The Horntail was not happy with this.  
Suddenly, he dived. The Horntail’s head followed him; Caelie could see it prepare to roast him, but just before the jet of fire was released, Harry wasn’t there anymore. He was, once more, over the head of the dragon.  
“Great Scott, he can fly!” yelled Bagmanas the crowd shrieked and gasped. “Are you watching this, Mr. Krum?”  
Harry soared higher in a circle; the Horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck — if he kept this up, it would be nicely dizzy — but better not push it too long, or it would be breathing fire again —  
Harry plummeted just as the horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky — he missed the flames, but the sail came whipping up to meet him instead, and as he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes —   
There were screams and groans from the crowd. He zoomed around the back of the Horntail.  
The Horntail didn’t seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs. Though she writhed and twisted, furling and unfurling her winds and keeping those fearsome yellow wyes on Harry, she was afraid to move too far from them.  
Harry began to fly, first one way, then the other, not near enough to make her breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficient threat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. Her head swayed this way and that, watching himont of those vertical pupils, her fangs bared.  
He flew higher. The Horntail’s head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying, like a snake before its charmer.  
He rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. He was like a fly to her, a fly she was longing to swat; her tail thrashed again, but he was too high to reach now. She shot fire into the air, which he dodged. Her jaws opened wide.  
And then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, as wide as those of a small airplane — and Harry dived.  
Before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed from legs — he took his hands off the Firebolt — he seized the golden egg —  
And with a huge spurt of speed, he was off, he was soaring over the stands, the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm, and the ground was screaming and applauding louder than they had done for any of the other champions.   
“Look at that!” Bagman shouted. “Will you look at that! Our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! Well, this is going to shorten the odds on Mr. Potter!”  
The team of dragon keepers rushed forward to subdue the Horntail, and Madame Pomfrey was coming into the enclosure, presumably to check his shoulder.   
Harry landed in front of her and she just shook her head.  
With a ten from Bagman, and a four from Karkaroff, Harry ended up tying the score with Viktor. They each had 40.  
Bagman announced the date for the next task and then the crowd started filing out.   
Snape put his hand on Caelie’s shoulder, gesturing for them to stay put. Fred and George, noticing they weren’t leaving yet, stayed as well.  
When the majority of the crowd had cleared away, Snape stood, “Let’s go.”  
They walked back up to the Great Hall for the feast that had been planned.   
As they walked, Smith pushed passed Caelie muttering “Freak” under his breath.   
She shrank into Draco’s side, and he put an arm around her.   
When they reached the Great Hall and sat down, she and Draco were facing the Gryffindor table, and Fred and George had their backs to it. None of the boys saw Weasley mouthing the word “Rules” at her, but she did. And she remembered the rules.   
She wasn’t to speak.   
She came when called.   
She was a Freak, and Freaks don’t get to eat.  
Draco had put food on her plate as usual, and she pretended to eat, instead putting the food in her napkin in her lap. Draco was so used to her sneaking food, he didn’t even notice that none of it went in her mouth. 


End file.
